Helen Epstein was a scientist working for a biotechnology company where they were trying to find the cure for AIDS. AIDS has been known for some time but it was at one point thought of as an epidemic because we did not understand it. Helen went on to move to Uganda where the suffering from AIDS was overwhelming. After that time she went on to write a book called The Invisible Cure, which explains the reasons why it became an epidemic and how to reduce the growth of the disease. Unfortunately she said that many times then not, people were more concerned about preventing AIDS and not about people with AIDS, “social stigma of infected people as well as an “out of sight, out of mind” attitude toward the virus” (page 109), people did not understand the virus and therefore wanted it to vanish. When a virus as deadly as AIDS becomes known, it becomes fear that leads people to do drastic things, such as acting as if everyone with it is contagious. When Helen went to South Africa, she saw that everyone knew how AIDS was contracted but, the rate of people dying from AIDS had tripled in number(page 110). So why is the death rate so high, but everyone is aware of the virus? Many people were denied access to medication which lead to some people accusing the health minister of South Africa of murdering millions of people. There had been a few organizations that tried to stop the spread of AIDS by working on prevention campaigns. Informing people to practice safe sex by providing them with condoms or information. Some of these campaigns came off as a little aggressive. One organization called LoveLife made a campaign that was very happy and people responded well, compared to original campaigns that came off oversexualized and disturbing. Reading what the commercial was, I agree that it was a bit much. LoveLife’s idea, or there goal was to get people talking about it, feeling not afraid to talk about it. There were even some organizations such as the Y-center that offered contraceptives and offered treatment for some STD’s but never anything for AIDS.
There is a very good text to text in this article linked to the TED talk by Anne Hallward, Anne talked about how stories are what starts change. In this text there was a boy who was twelve years old named Nkosi Johnson and he became famous after speaking up to do more for people with AIDS at an International Conference, which challenged the South African president. When Ellen spoke with some children after a seminar that she attended, they all mentioned that boy. So him sharing his concerns got people talking and that is what we need with any issue or anything that overall scares us. We have to face it head on to find a solution.
