HIV INFECTIONS AND AIDS DEATHS ESCALATE IN 2006

Donald E. Messer
December, 2006

Both the number of people living with HIV and the number of people dying from AIDS continued to escalate around the world in 2006, according to the latest UNAIDS estimates.  Increases occurred in every region of the world.

  • About 40 million are infected in 2006 (estimates range from 34.1 to 47.1 million), 2.6 million more than in 2004.  This figure includes 4.3 million (3.6 to 6.6 million) adults and children who were newly infected with HIV in 2006.  Adult and child deaths from AIDS during 2006 totaled 2.9 million (2.5 to 3.5 million).
  • Two-thirds of all persons globally living with HIV, and three-quarters of all AIDS deaths, are in Sub-Saharan Africa.  Life expectancy in these countries has dropped dramatically.
  • At least 25 million have died since HIV and AIDS emerged on the world stage.
  • Globally, more women than ever before have become infected, ranging from a low of 26% in North America to 59% in Sub-Saharan Africa.  In India 40% of the infected are women. 
  • About 18 million children orphaned and their numbers are growing.

For more information, see: www.unaids.org

Feeling the Facts—Focusing On Faces; Names Not Numbers
People ask why I am devoting my “retirement” to working for a hunger-free and AIDS-free world, and I am unable to articulate my calling, except to say “Why not?”  Sometimes I stumble and cannot find the words to describe the stories struggling to be told in my heart.  How, I ask, can I assist persons to feel these facts, since statistics are numbers without tears?

When I think of the global AIDS pandemic, I don’t respond to abstract figures but to human faces. For example, in 2006 six of us journeyed to India.  I lectured and preached at colleges and seminaries but what I most remember are the:

  • Sobbing mothers and wives that embraced me in sorrow at an AIDS hospital,  
  • Precious little children who were dying of AIDS because the world refuses to provide them medicine,
  • Anxious prisoners with AIDS kneeling in front of me, begging that we pray together, and
  • Hopeful orphans that dream that someday they will become teachers, pilots, policemen, and actors, if only they get a chance for care, medicine, and education.

Thanks to donations to the Center, we shared gifts of saris, shirts, and toys with the AIDS.   The women who surrounded me were so grateful that someone somewhere cared for their loved ones.  They grasped my arms and held my hand.   Their faces were etched in worry; their eyes reflected fear.   I felt so helpless; I could not even speak their language, but we bonded together in care and compassion.  They were hoping beyond hope, and all we could do was to cry together.

The longest human journey is from the mind to the heart.  I believe that once people begin to feel the facts of the global AIDS pandemic—once numbers have names and statistics have faces—then churches and individuals will respond generously and joyfully to opportunities to share in God’s great mission and ministry of healing and hope.  

Hope on the Horizon
All is not doom and gloom.  Hope is on the horizon, with possibilities for providing persons with education about prevention, care and treatment.  None of us can do everything, but that does not mean we can’t do something.  In the spirit of Mother Teresa, who realized she alone could not change the world, but could make a difference in the lives of individuals and communities, we work “one by one by one” with others of compassion and commitment.

The good news is that 1.65 million people globally now receive anti-retroviral treatment, and prevention education programs are helping to curb the growth of new infections.  The bad news is that globally programs of prevention and treatment fall far short of human need.

The large AIDS hospital in Tambaram, India, where I have visited repeatedly in recent years used to be simply a warehouse without hope for the dying.  Now people get assistance, and over 4,000 people are receiving out-patient anti-retroviral treatment.
Whether they all will survive at home is another question.  One Indian leader told me that in some parts of the country people are being “killed by the drugs” because of inadequate food and nutrition.  Perhaps that is overstated, but clearly inadequate attention has been given worldwide to the relationship of medicine and food in treating HIV and AIDS.

Through various programs and projects, the Center seeks to be a beacon of hope and healing.  In partnership with other organizations and persons of good will, we are confident we can make a difference in the lives of individuals and help eventually to create an AIDS-free and hunger-free world.