Looking Back and Forward
Carrying the Torch into the Second Wave of the Pandemic
I have had the blessing of participating in the National Catholic AIDS Network’s
Annual Conference since 2003. That year I experienced the gifts of the founding
members who raised awareness about the pandemic to the world and the church,
which at the beginning of the crisis seemed not ready to respond to the body
of Christ suffering from HIV and AIDS.
For over a decade, many of the long-time attendees had looked forward to gathering once a year for renewed support, prayer and community. After years of struggle, that traditional community received the Good News of treatments, which were more effective and rapidly available. Those who are blessed with healthcare or are better-off than the rest, are fortunate to access treatment and medication, and are living longer.
Many are now able to talk about HIV disease as a chronic condition, which — much like diabetes — can be controlled. On the other hand, as a result of long-term survivors becoming the norm, most of today’s young people have never seen the “face of AIDS” and the devastation this virus takes on the body in the form of Kaposi’s Sarcoma, wasting or CMV retinitis, to name a few. They are born into a world were HIV and AIDS have always been a part of their experience, and many falsely conclude that HIV infection is “no big deal.”
The year 2003 was one of transition for the Network. Since then, many of us representing those infected and affected by the “new wave” of HIV infection — communities of color, women, young people and seniors — have been ready to take up the banner of raising awareness, asking for help and building alliances to address the epidemic in the United States in its revised form. However, we could not just “put old wine into new wineskins” by using prevention messages, strategies and responses developed for a different group with resources, healthcare access, and support systems that are not necessarily available to these newly affected and infected groups.
Many of the new infections are occurring in the rural areas, which lack medical specialists to treat HIV disease and do not have pharmacies with the medications. In those areas confidentiality issues are problematic, and prevention education is conspicuously absent from schools, churches, and youth groups, among others.
The growing migrant population, especially the undocumented, is perhaps the most affected of all, and it is not necessarily taken into account in “official statistics”. Yet, those who work with these communities know first hand that the numbers of the infected keep increasing. Programs administered with public funds — like those from the Ryan White CARE Act — are not available for many among the newly infected because of their undocumented status.
Many of the new HIV cases pose new challenges. The growing Mayan community in the U.S., for example, has over 20 languages and none has a word for “virus”. In addition, many immigrants working as day laborers in the U.S. are pre-literate and live in conditions similar to those in developing countries, and poverty goes hand in hand with a higher risk of HIV infection.
We are keenly aware that infectious diseases have no boundaries. The most recent public health scare by a person with a resistant form of TB is a fresh reminder of the phrase “if it infects one of us, it affects us all.” However, in the U.S. we are now experiencing “AIDS fatigue” and indifference, even though new cases of HIV infection are rising steadily and alarmingly in many communities. This lack of awareness has prompted the closing of many Catholic AIDS ministries under the mistaken notion that AIDS is “under control” here when, in fact, new HIV infections in the nation are on the rise and experts agree that the tragedy the world has witnessed over the past 26 years is just “the tip of the iceberg.”
We have received the gift of networking opportunities, and given models to draw upon to create new ones that are culturally appropriate for our communities. We can help in spreading the Catholic prevention education and awareness information to our youth, laity, departments of Religious Education, schools, seminarians, deacons, priests and diocesan staff. We must draw on prayers and liturgical opportunities to instill and encourage compassion and a Christian response to the pandemic, especially in the U.S.
With the closing of the Network, each one of us is responsible for the outcome of this disease in our community. We are grateful to those who have carried the torch and enlightened our Catholic community about the HIV and AIDS crisis. We now accept the torch into the second wave of the epidemic in the U.S. with firm commitment, renewed understanding and creative, collaborative organization to further building up the Kingdom of God.
Irene F. Miranda
Director for the Office of HIV and AIDS Ministry
in the Archdiocese of Atlanta
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