Today marks the 24th annual World AIDS Day, a day marked around the globe for people to unite in the fight against HIV, show their support for people living with the chronic disease and to commemorate people who died.
Julie Dingwell is the executive director at AIDS Saint John, and she tells CHSJ news today is a chance to pause and reflect on how we’re dealing with the epidemic. She says there’s still a lot of discrimination in Saint John and around the world towards people with HIV. She says it’s that discrimination that sometimes discourages people from getting testing out of fear of being shunned.
Dingwell says AIDS is no longer a death sentence here in Canada, but a chronic manageable condition. She stresses it’s still a global pandemic, and our government needs to step up. Dingwell says just recently parliament voted down bill C-398 which would’ve let Canadian drug manufactures send medicine to Africa to help fight HIV. Only 2 batches of medicine have been sent to one country since 2008, she says.
Saint John Wears Red Ribbon For World AIDS Day
