These are all legitimate answers (well, maybe not Paris Hilton’s). But what most people don’t realize is that the biggest threat to mankind is an organism that’s tinier than the eye can see. What is this threat? Believe it or not, it’s a virus – the dreaded virus called human immunodeficiency virus or HIV, the virus that leads to AIDS.
You might be wondering why I’m writing an AIDS article in a business column. Simple. Because AIDS is everyone’s business.
I realize that I might bore you to death with this topic. But then again, that’s a lot better than getting infected to death. Because, in a nutshell, AIDS is an infection that could lead to the grave. If I am able to save just one reader from this dreaded killer, the boredom would be worth it.
Personally, I don’t know anyone who has been infected by HIV. But this dreaded virus hit me like a brick wall when it cut short the career of my then-favorite basketball player, Magic Johnson back in 1991. I was totally devastated. I was a die-hard Lakers fan (and still am) and my pro-Boston Celtics classmates and I would always argue as to who was better – Celtic legend Larry Bird or Earvin "Magic" Johnson. When I got to school that day, Monjie, my pro-Celtics classmate mockingly taunted me, "O, bakla pala idol mo eh! Hahaha!"
Right there and then, I experienced the prejudice that came with the disease. "Ah, may AIDS siya? Bakla siya sigurado." There was this immediate, sweeping judgment that Magic slept with men. Needless to say, it was a traumatic moment for me. Nothing is more depressing than realizing that the athlete you look up to is possibly gay – and worse, that he might possibly die anytime soon! Now, I don’t have anything against gay people per se. But you know, you just don’t want to entertain that thought with respect to your hero.
At that moment, there were four things that went through my head – thoughts that were borne out of ignorance about the disease. First, I immediately concluded that Magic was gay and that he had sexual relations with other men. Second, I got embarrassed being associated with him – I no longer wanted people to think that I was a fan. Third, I thought he was a goner – that he would never play basketball again, that he would be avoided like the plague and die a lonely, painful death. Fourth, I thought we were all hopeless and there was nothing we could do to try to stop this dreaded disease.
At that time, I was like most young people today – I was clueless about HIV/AIDS.
The good side about Magic’s infection is that it opened the eyes of a lot of people back then about the disease. Unfortunately, through the passing of years, Magic’s HIV infection has become almost irrelevant. If you see him now, he looks as healthy as a horse. His positive attitude and multifarious AVR (anti-retroviral) cocktail treatments have helped him live an almost normal life. His successful business empire has almost erased from people’s minds that he is actually HIV-positive. Moreover, his being infected is only known by people in their late 20s and older. In fact, for a lot of people who are between the ages of 16-24, the age group that is most susceptible to AIDS, Magic may not even register. They probably never saw him play, or at least, they don’t have a clear recollection of him playing. In short, he’s no longer relevant to this generation. There is no one important and relevant in their generation that has it. AIDS is not in their radar screen. Their guard is down – and that’s the dangerous thing.
• More than 20 million have died since the disease was first reported in 1981 (that’s more than a hundred times the people who died in the recent tsunami tragedy!)
• Around 40 million are infected with the HIV virus – that’s half the population of the Philippines!
• In 2004 alone, around 3.1 million people died of AIDS.
• Everyday, 8,500 HIV-positive people die.
Annually, MTV stages the MTV Staying Alive: Music Summit for AIDS. It’s MTV Philippines’ biggest annual event. And one of our biggest partners in this project is UNAIDS – the joint United Nations program on HIV/AIDS. The MTV Music Summit for AIDS aims to promote awareness on the disease, specifically the ways on how people can avoid being infected. Right now, sexual intercourse is the leading mode of HIV transmission. So the most effective way to avoid getting infected is not to engage in casual sex with just anyone. You never really know who has it. I realize it sounds preachy, but that’s the best way to avoid it.
Recently, UNAIDS’ Dale Rutstein and Malou Quintos invited me to a special event – a multi-sectoral partnership session entitled "Leadership & Vision for the Future – A Partnership Forum on HIV/AIDS in the Philppines." In the said forum, it was announced that the Government of Sweden (represented in the forum by its secretary for International Development Cooperation, Annika Soder) was going to sign an agreement with the Asian Development Bank (ADB) for the establishment of an HIV/AIDS trust fund worth $14.3 million. The fund is to be used for HIV/AIDS activities. And you know what’s interesting? HIV/AIDS is actually relatively rare in Sweden. And yet, amazingly, the government of Sweden is a major supporter of the global initiatives to combat the disease. Talk about genuine concern and selfless commitment!
Among the special international resource persons in this forum were Dr. Peter Piot, executive director of UNAIDS in Geneva, Switzerland, and undersecretary-general of the United Nations; and Lennarth Hjelmaker, Sweden’s HIV/AIDS ambassador.
Said Dr. Piot, "The epidemic in Asia threatens to become the largest in the world. With more than half the world’s population, the region must treat AIDS as an issue of regional urgency. The question is no longer whether Asia and the Pacific will have a major epidemic, but rather how massive this will be."
Clearly, the AIDS epidemic must be addressed now. It is a problem that concerns governments, corporations, and every individual. Like I said, it’s everyone’s business. And while this sounds corny, if you think you may have HIV/AIDS, or if you know someone who might have it, don’t be afraid, call UNAIDS at 901-0412 and 889-7414. I am really glad that UNAIDS is there to be the main advocate for global action on HIV/AIDS, leading the way to strengthen and support an expanded response to the epidemic. UNAIDS is an unprecedented and innovative joint venture of various UN agencies, and treats the epidemic as serious business. It has played an active role in the enactment of laws such as the Philippine AIDS Prevention and Control Act of 1998 and has provided technical and financial assistance in implementing the same.
So just like in the computer world where we always protect ourselves with anti-virus programs, we should always be on anti-virus mode, constantly informing ourselves about it, and thinking of ways to inform others about this dreaded disease.
After all, the life that you save today could be your own.