are you satisfied with complacency?
page 1 of 3
contents
of issue 73/74
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The World Aids Day theme this year came out of a MORI poll commissioned
by the National Aids Trust which found a decreased awareness of the meaning
of the red ribbon and a decline in interest in HIV issues by the public
at large.
If you are talking purely statistics, then in some ways it is reasonable
for the general public to be complacent about their chances of being infected
with HIV. The number infected with HIV in the UK is about 45,000 - less
than one in a hundred of
the population, and is also overwhelmingly concentrated among the high-risk
groups. This means that for the general population the chance of coming
in contact with HIV at all, let alone becoming infected, is very small.
Yet when infection does happen, the effect on the individual, family and
friends is as devastating as ever. It seems many people have lost any
conception of this. The ignorance surrounding HIV infection among the
general public is frightening.
There is even a culture among some young people (not just young gay gay
men) that
it might be quite a good idea to be infected. A positive young woman at the
