As a society, we’ve been focused on the COVID-19 pandemic for over two years now. But we aren’t finished solving the problems of the HIV/AIDS crisis. Some may argue that many of the same mistakes that were made in the approach to treating HIV/AIDS were repeated at the onset of the COVID pandemic. And, we certainly see similar poor governmental choices in the approach to monkey pox. Jesse Milan, Jr., President and CEO of AIDS United and class of ’78, is our guest for this episode of the podcast: Can We Talk About AIDS?
There are promising and exciting advances in the treatment of HIV/AIDS. For example, doctors are working with a medication that can block the reproduction of the virus within infected cells. AIDS patients are living longer and enjoying a higher quality of life. At the same time, many challenges remain and some of them are race based. We’ve mentioned race based disparities in health care before. Racism can also be a barrier to African American and Latino HIV/AIDS populations receiving good information and advanced treatment.
Jesse also raises the issue of the Black community’s reluctance to talk about HIV/AIDS. People who are infected are still stigmatized in our communities. As a result, we picked the title: Can We Talk About AIDS?
Hopefully we can help push some of these issues forward so that our brothers and sisters who are dealing with HIV/AIDS aren’t force to remain silent within even their own families.