Former PeerCorps Youth Stay Involved.
It is thrilling for me to hear from former PeerCorps volunteers whom I trained years ago. Out of the clear blue, an email will arrive from once-teens but now young adults asking if I remember them. Of course I do, yet, sometimes I need to check my rolodex to be sure as many youth share similar-looking names and I have my Senior moments (hey, I am 61 years old next week). I am so happy that they remember me and TeenAIDS’ mission. I am also pleased when I am told that there is a new baby “John” somewhere -- although one former Cambodian volunteer Nareach named his son “Jhon.” Close enough…
I have a few godchildren. There’s James (son of volunteer Hung and his wife, My Hanh). And John (son of my Vietnamese volunteer Tai). Recently, I was asked to be godfather to Sharon Achieng and Christine Akiny, daughters of former Kenyan volunteer Joshua Omondi. And there are others in other countries. I wish I was financially able to make their lives better but their parents understand that is not possible.
But back to the subject of hearing from former volunteers – many of whom want to know when I will be walking again in their countries. Unfortunately, I rarely return because money is tight and I have made a commitment to spreading the PeerCorps model far and wide to 83 countries so far. However, there are exceptions.
Mashinani PeerCorps is now set up in Kenya (see previous blogs).
On my Heart of Africa Walk in late 2008, I had planned on visiting four troubled nations where AIDS and recent civil strife have impacted young lives, namely, Sudan, Rwanda, Congo DRC and Angola. For a number of reasons, Angola just wasn’t in the cards and so plans changed. Yet traveling to the three others meant taking a regional carrier and I chose Air Kenya (I really liked their staff). This required going through Nairobi four times during the course of my trip and I am glad I did. Intra-continental travel is such that flights are not always frequent.
On my way to Sudan, we had to stay over night to catch the late afternoon flight. A former volunteer from 2000, Maximilla Okello had emailed me on numerous occasions telling me about her AIDS work with students and how she used theater to teach HIV prevention, a method close to my heart (“Stop Action Theater”). I told her I would meet her again at Nyumbani AIDS Orphanage.
The very first day, we traveled to the Nyumbani. While waiting for Maximilla to arrive from the country (six hours by bus), I toured the grounds and met many new HIV-positive teens. I also met some who remembered me when I stayed there for three weeks almost eight years previously. I would say, “Are you sure?” One teen said, “I remember your flower shirts and smile.”
I was surprised when I ran into Joshua Michael Omondi who was working on the grounds. I didn’t know he was still at Nyumbani. Another volunteer met me there too. From this core group and adding new ones, Mashinani PeerCorps was formed in January, 2009. You can hear more about this new group and how these twenty-somethings (most former volunteers trained by me) are planning to reach out to youth across Kenya. They are doing this on a very poor budget because none of these young people have the means to support the new start-up. I am sending a little money but I really don’t have enough myself.
They could use a PC laptop. Sending it into Kenya can be problematic but if a reader of this blog is traveling to Kenya, they would be overjoyed to meet you and receive a gift from you. I don’t want to get their hopes up but life often works in mysterious ways. Contact me for more information.
Friday, February 20, 2009
Tuesday, February 17, 2009
A very unusual Blog – reader beware!
This blog has been percolating in my head like a finely brewing cup of coffee that is in imminent danger of burning. With as little melodrama as I can avoid, let me lay IT out because there’s nothing more to lose. Essentially, I have lost everything I own by volunteering the last twelve years of my life to the cause of warning teens about the unseen danger of HIV/AIDS. I have never been able to take a salary – nothing – since TeenAIDS became a 501 c 3 in 1997 because donations always went to fund our ambitious programs, not overhead expenses. And now the result is clear.
The bank is ready to foreclose on my home that houses TeenAIDS; I am selling off my possessions to pay the utilities and necessities; and my car was towed away today because it was totaled in a bad December ice storm that ravaged central Massachusetts while I was in the Congo. An intern had left it parked outside the garage when a tree demolished it. I had some insurance but you know how that business runs. After the deduction, I was left with a check that is enough to pay off a few months of past mortgage payments. I now live below the poverty line.
With the economy in a nose-dive, charitable contributions have all but dried up. I don’t want sympathy because there are many people I know suffering much more. My emails are filled with pleas from youth around the world asking for financial help after they took up my call to get involved in peer-led volunteerism to fight HIV. No longer can I send them modest donations of support. The PeerCorps model is still the most effective method to persuade adolescents to take responsibility for their high-risk behaviors. But I am a realist. My global outreach is now over. I am proud that 330,000 young people have been personally trained in the 83 countries that I have walked in. Yet, the well has just about dried up in these financially troubled times.
A few months ago, a major donor asked me to admit my mistake – namely, that it was my fault that I didn’t insist on taking even partial pay. Heck, I am willing to list many failings but at that time, I was still the optimist. As one dear friend constantly reminds me, “John, every time things look bleak, something always happens that keeps TeenAIDS going.” And she was right. Operating TeenAIDS on a small budget provided by loyal donors has been like a rickety roller coaster ride, exhilarating on the climb and scary on the turns.
Truth be told, I am a purist. I didn’t want to compromise our medically accurate teachings to gain the favor of government or religious support. If we had been willing to preach “Abstinence-only-before-marriage” dogma and not tell the whole truth to teens, we could have received grants and I could have been paid a modest amount to survive on.
I am writing the book that I should have written years ago but perhaps the time is right now. It will tell the whole story about making a commitment to take the AIDS prevention campaign to the streets of the world – the many ups and downs and successes along the way – with no holds barred.
Let me make this clear - we are each responsible for making our own beds and nothing comes from whining. At this point, the PeerCorps legacy will survive. How, I am not quite sure. All options are on the table. Certainly, a manuscript that details the rising youth HIV epidemic and tells the stories of young heroes in communities worldwide will serve as a beacon for proactive volunteer efforts.
I believe in this humanitarian cause with passion and the dedication of my life.
The bank is ready to foreclose on my home that houses TeenAIDS; I am selling off my possessions to pay the utilities and necessities; and my car was towed away today because it was totaled in a bad December ice storm that ravaged central Massachusetts while I was in the Congo. An intern had left it parked outside the garage when a tree demolished it. I had some insurance but you know how that business runs. After the deduction, I was left with a check that is enough to pay off a few months of past mortgage payments. I now live below the poverty line.
With the economy in a nose-dive, charitable contributions have all but dried up. I don’t want sympathy because there are many people I know suffering much more. My emails are filled with pleas from youth around the world asking for financial help after they took up my call to get involved in peer-led volunteerism to fight HIV. No longer can I send them modest donations of support. The PeerCorps model is still the most effective method to persuade adolescents to take responsibility for their high-risk behaviors. But I am a realist. My global outreach is now over. I am proud that 330,000 young people have been personally trained in the 83 countries that I have walked in. Yet, the well has just about dried up in these financially troubled times.
A few months ago, a major donor asked me to admit my mistake – namely, that it was my fault that I didn’t insist on taking even partial pay. Heck, I am willing to list many failings but at that time, I was still the optimist. As one dear friend constantly reminds me, “John, every time things look bleak, something always happens that keeps TeenAIDS going.” And she was right. Operating TeenAIDS on a small budget provided by loyal donors has been like a rickety roller coaster ride, exhilarating on the climb and scary on the turns.
Truth be told, I am a purist. I didn’t want to compromise our medically accurate teachings to gain the favor of government or religious support. If we had been willing to preach “Abstinence-only-before-marriage” dogma and not tell the whole truth to teens, we could have received grants and I could have been paid a modest amount to survive on.
I am writing the book that I should have written years ago but perhaps the time is right now. It will tell the whole story about making a commitment to take the AIDS prevention campaign to the streets of the world – the many ups and downs and successes along the way – with no holds barred.
Let me make this clear - we are each responsible for making our own beds and nothing comes from whining. At this point, the PeerCorps legacy will survive. How, I am not quite sure. All options are on the table. Certainly, a manuscript that details the rising youth HIV epidemic and tells the stories of young heroes in communities worldwide will serve as a beacon for proactive volunteer efforts.
I believe in this humanitarian cause with passion and the dedication of my life.
Thursday, February 12, 2009
Bits and Pieces #2: "Mashinani," Kenya and Maggiore dies.
Mashinani PeerCorps.
On my Heart of Africa Walk, I had tickets to three destinations that all required that I transit through Nairobi, Kenya. That was alright with me because I wanted to meet again with some wonderful young people that I had first met in 2000 following my attendance at the International AIDS Conference that was held in Durban, South Africa. I had stayed at Father D’Agostino’s remarkable Nyumbani Orphanage for babies and children living with AIDS. While there, I worked with students from high schools and universities that volunteered to assist the children. We formed a partnership: TeenAIDS, the students and Nyumbani teens living with AIDS to do street outreach in some of the poorest slums in the city.
On my way through Nairobi in November 2008, I met up with Maximilla Okello and Joshua Omondi, former PeerCorps helpers and now grown with young children of their own. From these meetings, a new group has formed to carry on TeenAIDS’ work educating teens. One thing I was most concerned about: making sure that all maturing youth were educated in the medical facts to avoid HIV -- no matter their gender, religion or importantly, tribal allegiance. Obviously, trying to discuss the sexual transmission of HIV is difficult in conservative cultures. Gender and religious factors complicate the process. However, in Kenya, tribalism is a very strong influence on most peoples’ lives. Just a year ago, hundreds were killed following a bitterly-disputed presidential election with tribalism being the key factor. One of my group told me the harrowing tale of how he only had minutes to spirit his wife and two daughters away by taxi before the killers would arrive at his home.
In mid-December ‘08, a small and dedicated team came together to form a new group “Mashinani PeerCorps” that included Joshua Omondi, Maximilla Okello, Muktar Adan, Michael Musango and John Ndika. They represent different tribes, genders and religions but are committed to fighting HIV. Additionally, Denis Buluma who was one of my best Nyumbani volunteers as a young teen in 2000 is going to join the nucleus of this new outreach group. Using theater, dance and song, a traveling cadre will visit different parts of Kenya to spread the stop-AIDS message. We will post pictures of the group. They need donations to help them organize in different areas.
Shocking Statistics from Kenya:
According to new research from the Kenya AIDS Indicator Survey 2007, being married is considered a high-risk population for HIV. Can this be true? The findings show that married women who stay monogamous during marriage are at higher risk than unmarried women -- even unmarried men -- because it is culturally accepted (in many quarters) for Kenyan husbands to have mistresses or visit prostitutes, before bringing HIV back home.
About two-thirds of HIV-infected adults report currently being in a “union” (defined as marriage or a long term relationship). The study showed that most new infections occur within unions, the opposite of what we AIDS prevention educators advise youth. The extensive survey also found that among sexually active men, those who have never been in a heterosexual union have a prevalence of 2.8%, compared to 7.4% among men currently living in union with a female partner.
A leading expert, Gilbert Iyiera from Ecology Covenant Centre said, “The rampant spread of HIV in marriage is the failure of parents to discuss sex with their children. Sex is a taboo topic when they are growing up: and so when these children mature and get married, sex continues to be a taboo subject.”
I couldn’t have said it better.
Christine Maggiore is Dead.
A friend called me a month ago after hearing on the news that an Anti-AIDS activist had just died. Fifty-three year old Christine Maggiore strongly denied that she was infected by AIDS although all tests said it was so. Christine fervently believed there was no such virus as HIV so she never accepted that she could be dying of something that didn’t exist. A follower of Professor Peter Duesberg of UCLA, she campaigned in the press and a book that HIV/AIDS was a figment of most people’s imagination (I had interviewed Duesberg for my Harvard thesis).
Christine and I actually “debated” the topic in historic Concord, Massachusetts at Orchard House, part of the 19th century School of Philosophy. In a cold meeting room where Emerson, Thoreau and the Alcott sisters discussed topics ranging from philosophy to war, Christine and I put forth our ideas. When I accepted the invitation to speak, I had told Stuart Weeks, the organizer of the three-day event, that my main interest was only to promote the need to educate teens about how to avoid infection – not try to prove it’s real (98% of all scientists and medical authorities accept that HIV as the cause of AIDS). With the assurance that we could use our time at the forum to discuss our work, I agreed to participate.
Before the evening talk, Christine and I shared a vegan dinner at an event sponsor’s home. We started off amicably enough when she showed me a gift she had bought for her child in Boston (a board game) and we talked about family. Then she challenged my work on behalf of a non-existent danger and argued the Duesberg line. Over green beans and rice cakes, Christine and I agreed to disagree. I spoke first in the drafty, old building that had seen some of America's first literati speak. I said that I accepted the view that the HIV virus caused the AIDS diseases and talked about my work convincing youth to tell friends how to avoid HIV. Christine spoke about how my ideas teaching teens were counter-productive and launched into a full-frontal attack on medical authorities and institutions for the AIDS scam.
In a LA Times article of 2005, the paper reported, “Maggiore claimed to be in excellent health without taking anti-retroviral treatment. Maggiore's husband and partner, filmmaker Robin Scovill, has repeatedly tested negative despite what Maggiore describes as a decade of normal, latex-free relations." However, Christine had given birth to a child who tested positive and later died of AIDS-related causes. She had also admitted breast-feeding the baby.
To the very end, Christine Maggiore denied she was dying of AIDS caused by HIV. I liked Christine while respectfully disagreeing with her beliefs. I send my condolences to her husband and family.
On my Heart of Africa Walk, I had tickets to three destinations that all required that I transit through Nairobi, Kenya. That was alright with me because I wanted to meet again with some wonderful young people that I had first met in 2000 following my attendance at the International AIDS Conference that was held in Durban, South Africa. I had stayed at Father D’Agostino’s remarkable Nyumbani Orphanage for babies and children living with AIDS. While there, I worked with students from high schools and universities that volunteered to assist the children. We formed a partnership: TeenAIDS, the students and Nyumbani teens living with AIDS to do street outreach in some of the poorest slums in the city.
On my way through Nairobi in November 2008, I met up with Maximilla Okello and Joshua Omondi, former PeerCorps helpers and now grown with young children of their own. From these meetings, a new group has formed to carry on TeenAIDS’ work educating teens. One thing I was most concerned about: making sure that all maturing youth were educated in the medical facts to avoid HIV -- no matter their gender, religion or importantly, tribal allegiance. Obviously, trying to discuss the sexual transmission of HIV is difficult in conservative cultures. Gender and religious factors complicate the process. However, in Kenya, tribalism is a very strong influence on most peoples’ lives. Just a year ago, hundreds were killed following a bitterly-disputed presidential election with tribalism being the key factor. One of my group told me the harrowing tale of how he only had minutes to spirit his wife and two daughters away by taxi before the killers would arrive at his home.
In mid-December ‘08, a small and dedicated team came together to form a new group “Mashinani PeerCorps” that included Joshua Omondi, Maximilla Okello, Muktar Adan, Michael Musango and John Ndika. They represent different tribes, genders and religions but are committed to fighting HIV. Additionally, Denis Buluma who was one of my best Nyumbani volunteers as a young teen in 2000 is going to join the nucleus of this new outreach group. Using theater, dance and song, a traveling cadre will visit different parts of Kenya to spread the stop-AIDS message. We will post pictures of the group. They need donations to help them organize in different areas.
Shocking Statistics from Kenya:
According to new research from the Kenya AIDS Indicator Survey 2007, being married is considered a high-risk population for HIV. Can this be true? The findings show that married women who stay monogamous during marriage are at higher risk than unmarried women -- even unmarried men -- because it is culturally accepted (in many quarters) for Kenyan husbands to have mistresses or visit prostitutes, before bringing HIV back home.
About two-thirds of HIV-infected adults report currently being in a “union” (defined as marriage or a long term relationship). The study showed that most new infections occur within unions, the opposite of what we AIDS prevention educators advise youth. The extensive survey also found that among sexually active men, those who have never been in a heterosexual union have a prevalence of 2.8%, compared to 7.4% among men currently living in union with a female partner.
A leading expert, Gilbert Iyiera from Ecology Covenant Centre said, “The rampant spread of HIV in marriage is the failure of parents to discuss sex with their children. Sex is a taboo topic when they are growing up: and so when these children mature and get married, sex continues to be a taboo subject.”
I couldn’t have said it better.
Christine Maggiore is Dead.
A friend called me a month ago after hearing on the news that an Anti-AIDS activist had just died. Fifty-three year old Christine Maggiore strongly denied that she was infected by AIDS although all tests said it was so. Christine fervently believed there was no such virus as HIV so she never accepted that she could be dying of something that didn’t exist. A follower of Professor Peter Duesberg of UCLA, she campaigned in the press and a book that HIV/AIDS was a figment of most people’s imagination (I had interviewed Duesberg for my Harvard thesis).
Christine and I actually “debated” the topic in historic Concord, Massachusetts at Orchard House, part of the 19th century School of Philosophy. In a cold meeting room where Emerson, Thoreau and the Alcott sisters discussed topics ranging from philosophy to war, Christine and I put forth our ideas. When I accepted the invitation to speak, I had told Stuart Weeks, the organizer of the three-day event, that my main interest was only to promote the need to educate teens about how to avoid infection – not try to prove it’s real (98% of all scientists and medical authorities accept that HIV as the cause of AIDS). With the assurance that we could use our time at the forum to discuss our work, I agreed to participate.
Before the evening talk, Christine and I shared a vegan dinner at an event sponsor’s home. We started off amicably enough when she showed me a gift she had bought for her child in Boston (a board game) and we talked about family. Then she challenged my work on behalf of a non-existent danger and argued the Duesberg line. Over green beans and rice cakes, Christine and I agreed to disagree. I spoke first in the drafty, old building that had seen some of America's first literati speak. I said that I accepted the view that the HIV virus caused the AIDS diseases and talked about my work convincing youth to tell friends how to avoid HIV. Christine spoke about how my ideas teaching teens were counter-productive and launched into a full-frontal attack on medical authorities and institutions for the AIDS scam.
In a LA Times article of 2005, the paper reported, “Maggiore claimed to be in excellent health without taking anti-retroviral treatment. Maggiore's husband and partner, filmmaker Robin Scovill, has repeatedly tested negative despite what Maggiore describes as a decade of normal, latex-free relations." However, Christine had given birth to a child who tested positive and later died of AIDS-related causes. She had also admitted breast-feeding the baby.
To the very end, Christine Maggiore denied she was dying of AIDS caused by HIV. I liked Christine while respectfully disagreeing with her beliefs. I send my condolences to her husband and family.
Friday, February 6, 2009
Bits and Pieces #1: Congo. A Cure for AIDS?
Congo Revisited & Some Really Good People
Civil wars and fighting in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) have decimated the infrastructure and hurt the populace since the advent of colonialism. Under dictator Mobutu Sese Seko and since then, over 5 million Congolese have been killed, making the civilian death toll the worse since the end of World War II. The poor people of this country have suffered greatly. Despite being one of the richest countries in the developing world with its gold, minerals, ore and timber, its riches have gone to a privileged few with almost nothing trickling down to the masses. In all parts of the world (including in the U.S.), travelers are used to panhandlers with their hands out but in the DRC, people came up to me begging for water and food – it was very sad.
Not all privileged Congolese are to blame for the laissez faire attitude toward corruption. Some foreign businessmen, acting together with duplicitous neighboring countries and diverse rebel factions, are involved in robbing the natural resources for their own gain. They “see” what I see but they choose not to recognize what they are doing because as one put it: “I’m here to make money… It’s just the way here.” I met some incredibly nice ex-pats but also a few shady characters. I can only imagine how improved the lot of the population would be if the true profits from taking the DRC’s resources were accounted for, taxed and government funds made it back to help these impoverished people.
Can you imagine how the AIDS problem could be better handled if more government resources were made available?
The positive news is the dedication and contribution of young Congolese who are helping their country fight HIV/AIDS. Our Congo trip was the result of a lot of hard work by Joel Vengo, a graduate exchange student living near Portland, Maine. When I sent out notices in the late spring that I was planning on visiting countries in Africa, Joel heard about it and e-mailed me that he could assist me. He was involved with a non-profit organization called RACOJ-SIDA. He made repeated phone calls and e-mails to colleagues in the DRC. Literally, without his help and expertise, the trip would not have been as productive.
The only way to get into the Congo is with permission of the government based on written invitations from respected organizations or businesses. Joel was able to get me an official invitation from Tresor Kasia, the head of RACOJ. Without it, the expensive visas would have been nearly impossible. As I look back on our work there, I am indebted to Joel for his dedication to both TeenAIDS and his countrymen.
However, I met some truly incredible people who deserve recognition. One young man, Herve, whom we called “Kevin” was 18 and heard me speak at his English language school. When he volunteered, I sent him over to Samuel, a University of Kinshasa student who was helping me through RACOJ. The two of them helped tremendously. Both of them spoke very good English, as did our great RACOJ helpers, Princess and Dandy. In the next few months, they will be recognized as “Volunteers of the Week.”
Cure Coming?
For most all professionals that accept that HIV is the cause for AIDS, little hope has existed that a cure would soon be found. After nearly a billion dollars spent and thousands of doctors and scientists working on AIDS research for over 25 years, we have some important medicines and treatments but no cure. We don’t have a vaccine for HIV that is now negatively affecting sexually active youth who do not use condoms.
Over a month ago, a startling headline appeared in the Wall Street Journal: “A Doctor, a Mutation and a Potential Cure for AIDS.” The story tells the story of a man who appears to have been "functionally cured" of AIDS. He is off all anti-HIV meds, has a normal T-cell count, and exhibits no evidence of the virus.
Top AIDS experts are intrigued that something important might be happening. The highly respected foundation “amfAR” of Dr. Mathilde Krim decided that there is a possibility of finding a possible cure at last. Their senior scientific consultant Dr. Jeffrey Laurence has prepared a brief, easy-to-understand summary of the case that you can read by going to:
http://www.amfar.org/cgi-bin/iowa/programs/resrch/record.html?record=71
If this single case can be replicated, it could be the wish come true of every person helping to stop the spread of HIV.
In my travels, I have come across promises of cures for sale on the streets. I have been shown jars filled with jelly-like slime floating in milky looking fluids above a bed of something like rotting seaweed. Unfortunately, desperate people will buy any hope – even a charlatan’s cure.
It is sad to think of all those who will die before the cure is discovered. It is sadder to think about the teens today that will be exposed to the virus and be hurt for years to come.
Civil wars and fighting in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) have decimated the infrastructure and hurt the populace since the advent of colonialism. Under dictator Mobutu Sese Seko and since then, over 5 million Congolese have been killed, making the civilian death toll the worse since the end of World War II. The poor people of this country have suffered greatly. Despite being one of the richest countries in the developing world with its gold, minerals, ore and timber, its riches have gone to a privileged few with almost nothing trickling down to the masses. In all parts of the world (including in the U.S.), travelers are used to panhandlers with their hands out but in the DRC, people came up to me begging for water and food – it was very sad.
Not all privileged Congolese are to blame for the laissez faire attitude toward corruption. Some foreign businessmen, acting together with duplicitous neighboring countries and diverse rebel factions, are involved in robbing the natural resources for their own gain. They “see” what I see but they choose not to recognize what they are doing because as one put it: “I’m here to make money… It’s just the way here.” I met some incredibly nice ex-pats but also a few shady characters. I can only imagine how improved the lot of the population would be if the true profits from taking the DRC’s resources were accounted for, taxed and government funds made it back to help these impoverished people.
Can you imagine how the AIDS problem could be better handled if more government resources were made available?
The positive news is the dedication and contribution of young Congolese who are helping their country fight HIV/AIDS. Our Congo trip was the result of a lot of hard work by Joel Vengo, a graduate exchange student living near Portland, Maine. When I sent out notices in the late spring that I was planning on visiting countries in Africa, Joel heard about it and e-mailed me that he could assist me. He was involved with a non-profit organization called RACOJ-SIDA. He made repeated phone calls and e-mails to colleagues in the DRC. Literally, without his help and expertise, the trip would not have been as productive.
The only way to get into the Congo is with permission of the government based on written invitations from respected organizations or businesses. Joel was able to get me an official invitation from Tresor Kasia, the head of RACOJ. Without it, the expensive visas would have been nearly impossible. As I look back on our work there, I am indebted to Joel for his dedication to both TeenAIDS and his countrymen.
However, I met some truly incredible people who deserve recognition. One young man, Herve, whom we called “Kevin” was 18 and heard me speak at his English language school. When he volunteered, I sent him over to Samuel, a University of Kinshasa student who was helping me through RACOJ. The two of them helped tremendously. Both of them spoke very good English, as did our great RACOJ helpers, Princess and Dandy. In the next few months, they will be recognized as “Volunteers of the Week.”
Cure Coming?
For most all professionals that accept that HIV is the cause for AIDS, little hope has existed that a cure would soon be found. After nearly a billion dollars spent and thousands of doctors and scientists working on AIDS research for over 25 years, we have some important medicines and treatments but no cure. We don’t have a vaccine for HIV that is now negatively affecting sexually active youth who do not use condoms.
Over a month ago, a startling headline appeared in the Wall Street Journal: “A Doctor, a Mutation and a Potential Cure for AIDS.” The story tells the story of a man who appears to have been "functionally cured" of AIDS. He is off all anti-HIV meds, has a normal T-cell count, and exhibits no evidence of the virus.
Top AIDS experts are intrigued that something important might be happening. The highly respected foundation “amfAR” of Dr. Mathilde Krim decided that there is a possibility of finding a possible cure at last. Their senior scientific consultant Dr. Jeffrey Laurence has prepared a brief, easy-to-understand summary of the case that you can read by going to:
http://www.amfar.org/cgi-bin/iowa/programs/resrch/record.html?record=71
If this single case can be replicated, it could be the wish come true of every person helping to stop the spread of HIV.
In my travels, I have come across promises of cures for sale on the streets. I have been shown jars filled with jelly-like slime floating in milky looking fluids above a bed of something like rotting seaweed. Unfortunately, desperate people will buy any hope – even a charlatan’s cure.
It is sad to think of all those who will die before the cure is discovered. It is sadder to think about the teens today that will be exposed to the virus and be hurt for years to come.
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