Learn about AIDS

Ugh, I've been so bad about updating. And right now I'm in Evanston with no goals (other than having fun) so I really have no excuse.
Anyway, I got back Friday from the 2006 International AIDS Conference in Toronto. It was pretty great.

I attended the conference because I got a grant to research AIDS activism in the post-antiretroviral(ARV) drug era. This essentially means that much less people in the developed world are dying of HIV/AIDS, but that the developing world is still fucked because they can't afford money for drugs. Right now only 25% of people who need the drugs are getting them, but that number is thankfully increasing now that more money is being thrown at AIDS by the likes of Bill and Melinda Gates and more governments are realizing that 8,000 people are dying from AIDS a day it's a serious problem.

24,000 people gathered in Toronto to discuss anything and everything about the global AIDS pandemic. The hot topics this year, in case you are interested, were microbicides (a form of contraceptive that's in development that would allow women to insert a gel in their vaginas to protect against HIV) and male circumcision (self-explanatory) as prevention tools. Women were a big topic since their infection rates are increasing and it's related to poverty, etc. Also money, money, money, but I have to imagine that's a topic every conference.

I talked to someone who worked in the Swaziiland health department who told me about the denialism in her country and a doctor in South Africa who said he took a quick crash course for treating HIV/AIDS when he saw so many cases appearing in his practice. I saw a former HIV-positive Canadian prisoner speak about the seriously inadequate treatment of HIV-positive people, even in a country we think of as not messed up with stuff like that.

Oh, and I saw celebrities. These include Bill Clinton, Bill Gates, the far-superior Melinda Gates, an old and fat-looking Richard Gere and my personal favorite, Ethan Zohn, from Survivor 3. Ethan was exciting because I celebrity-spotted him on the escalator. Oh, and Barry White opened for Clinton, but I was so sure Barry White was dead I didn't realize it was him until the end. [EDITED TO SAY: It wasn't him! Barry White is dead! I will get to the bottom of who this imposter was! Thanks Josh for the news! RIP Barry White! Maybe Christine can write a poem!] I willmissed Bill Gates both times, but I saw Melinda who was cool and said (gasp) sex workers are people.

Clinton was great and I sat through a ridic boring session on medicine to see him. But I'm unwilling to pat him on the back too hard since his work as a "private citizen" doesn't make up for his lack of it as a public citizen. Like, it's awesome you think needle exchanges should be legal now, but that doesn't really do anything. Speaking of which, I doubt any of my readership is against needle exchange, but just in case: Would you start shooting heroin just because you had a needle? No? Neither would everyone. Ugh, I hate our government sometimes. Like, this whole conference.

This old activist said we should stop treating "Bill and Bill like royalty" since it's the grassroots people who make a difference and think of innovative solutions, but those grassroots people, um, need money.

And this week would not have been complete without the help of the lovely Anne, who lives in Toronto by way of Ossining and who shared her queen-size bed, showed me Toronto, Mean Girls in the park, scrabble, alcohol, put up with my lack of directions-savviness, and provided an antidote to the fact that 8,000 people are dying every day from AIDS.

I feel like I should be providing some link where you can donate money, but whatever, there are millions of charities and I don't think I'm an expert of which one to pick.