Fauci: Despite 'AIDS fatigue,' Americans should care
Dr. Anthony Fauci has seen HIV and AIDS evolve from a mystery disease of the 1980s to an international health catastrophe to a disease that many consider a chronic but manageable condition. As director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases at the National Institutes of Health, Fauci is among the foremost U.S. authorities on HIV and AIDS. He sat down with CNN this week to talk about the epidemic, its evolution and why, despite tremendous progress in saving and extending lives, there's still much work to be done. startclickprintexclude--> Whereas a decade and a half ago we had people in hospices, we had 30-40 percent of the hospital wards in inner-city hospitals occupied by people with advanced HIV disease. And now because of the success of the therapies -- which is great news -- we don't have that. Unfortunately, that has lulled the public in general and even people at risk for HIV into a complacent state, which is very dangerous because we still have over 40,000 new infections each year in the U.S. And the distressing part of that is that number has remained stable over 10 years. Which means we have not been able to crack that wall in numbers of infections. So, we have to be even more creative in our prevention measures. If you look at the numbers in the U.S. there's really is no reason for complacency. We have now over 750,000 people, close to a million people, who have had a diagnosis of HIV/AIDS. More than half a million have died of HIV in this country. And of the 1.2 million people in the U. S. who are infected with HIV, there are 25 percent of those people -- over 250,000 -- who do not know they are infected. startclickprintexclude--> because we are part of a global community. Many people may not want to realize or admit that, but we are. The world is a place that is so interconnected that what happens in another part of the world will impact us. We know that, particularly now with economic globalization and globalization of trade, that what happens in another part of the world impacts us. There's also the responsibility, which I think is a moral responsibility, for humanitarian considerations when other citizens of the world are suffering and dying in ... ways that can be prevented, that we as a rich nation, we as a nation that is a powerful nation, and one of the leading nations in the world, we do have the moral responsibility to try to help those that are less fortunate. And when I say moral responsibility, I mean global moral responsibility, not just a responsibility to our own citizens. CNN: What else would you like to add? Fauci: I think we need to keep our eye on the important picture that although we've accomplished a lot, there's much to do. So, whenever I talk about or discuss HIV AIDS, I always say much accomplished, comma, much to do. And that's exactly where we are. We've accomplished an extraordinary amount over the past 26 years but we still have an awful lot to do. |
President Bush calls World AIDS Day "a day of sadness and hope." »
