The AIDS epidemic doesn't get talked about any more the way it used to. During the 80s, the discovery that the disease was a threat to humanity generated alarming headlines all over the world. There was fear of this inexplicable disease, and a stigma attached to those at risk of contracting it. But today people don't talk about AIDS any more, and for many it is simply an ill which affects “other people.” But don't fool yourself; AIDS has not gone away.

This week marks 20 years since the World Health Organization declared the 1st of December to be World AIDS Day. The intention was to raise the consciousness of the globally about HIV and AIDS, and to promote the development of education and prevention programs. But here we are, two decades later, and we can see that, though AIDS treatment has improved, there are still too many patients who do not have access to it. And what is worse, there are too many who have been exposed to the illness and do not know it.

In the United States, recent statistics published by the Centers for Disease Control indicate that, in spite of comprising 15 percent of the population, Latinos make up 19 percent of new AIDS cases diagnosed in 2006. Calculations indicate that there are 200,000 U.S. Latinos living with the AIDS virus, and millions more who are indirectly affected by the disease.

A couple of weeks ago, during a Los Angeles conference, public health officials and community leaders spoke about the reasons behind the growing number of Latinos affected by AIDS. They attributed the phenomenon to a lack of understanding of the disease and a lack of information about how it is transmitted. As a result, Latinos do not have themselves tested as often as other groups. A cultural component in all this must also be considered: AIDS is still a major taboo among Latino males. And the problem is bigger still for Latina women at risk of contracting the disease, because they have to deal with still another element – machismo. Many Latina patients have been infected by unfaithful husbands who pick up the virus in the streets. As a consequence, many Latinas who become pregnant without knowing that they are carriers of the disease pass it along to their fetuses. They do not know that tests, done in good time, can help prevent the transmission of the illness from mother to child.

With the threat of so many mortal illnesses, the knowledge and research on AIDS seem to have fallen back a step. We have seen campaigns to inform people about cardiac disease, cancer and diabetes, among others, but AIDS continues to be the unmentionable sickness. Even so, many lives could be saved if people realized that being tested to determine one's possible exposure to the HIV virus is not something to be ashamed of; it is, in fact, an act of courage; however, putting one's own and other people's lives at risk is the precise opposite.