AIDS: Understanding and Compassion
“AIDS ministry invites us to walk in the footsteps of Jesus and try to love as Jesus did.”
– Father Edward Phillips
AIDS in Focus
Harry has been living with HIV for almost a quarter century. “I have a support group of good friends and family,” he says. “It’s a journey you take together.”
Carla also has HIV; in fact, in her case, that virus has so compromised her body’s immune system that she now has its end result, AIDS, where life-threatening infection can occur.
“Don’t think you’re alone, isolated,” she advises to all who face HIV/AIDS. “Reach out! Reach out! Someone will be there to walk you through it.”
History will record the HIV/AIDS pandemic as one of the most destructive problems to strike the human family. Since its discovery in 1981, there have been 25 million AIDS-related deaths. In 2008, there were an estimated 33 million persons living with HIV/AIDS. Africa alone has more than 14 million children orphaned because of the disease.
Knowing the truth about HIV is the first step to ending myths and saving lives.
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