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A
Lifelong Connection
The one predictable thing in life is our interconnectedness. Twenty-five
years ago in New York City, I met a gay man with Kaposi's sarcoma.
He was an actor in his late 30s, far too young to be so ill. Though
our lifestyles were different, we had much in common. We were similar
in age, grew up near Detroit, and attended Catholic high schools.
This once-vibrant man died of AIDS, before the disease even had
a name.
Twelve years later, I responded to
a Navy officer who wrote to me about his daughter, Nina Martinez,
who contracted HIV through a blood transfusion shortly after her
birth. Today, Nina is majoring in epidemiology at the Rollins School
of Public Health (RSPH). She also serves as an advocate for HIV
prevention and treatment among college students like those at Emory.
By sharing her story, she offers hope and encouragement to students
who may be HIV-positive.
For nearly a decade, the RSPH has
been home to the Emory Center for AIDS Research, uniting more than
100 university clinicians and scientists intent on helping those
affected by HIV/AIDS. Those researchers are part of a massive effort
to halt an epidemic that has claimed 25 million lives worldwide
since 1981.
In this issue of Public Health,
we reflect on the 25th anniversary of AIDS through the eyes of students,
faculty, and alumni who have been touched by the disease in some
way. I'm reminded of my colleague Jonathan Mann, founder of the
World Health Organization's global AIDS program, who died in a plane
crash in 1998. As Jonathan said in an address that year, "When
the history of AIDS and the global response is written, our most
precious contribution may well be that, at a time of plague, we
did not flee, we did not hide, we did not separate ourselves."
Sincerely,
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