It's Leadership--Stupid!
Document Type
Editorial
Publication Date
1-2005
Abstract
The beginning of a New Year offers the opportunity for change and for revisioning the future. It is a chance to renew our efforts to do things differently and to work to make things better in our own lives, our local community, and the world community. For many working in HIV/AIDS, the events of this last year underscore the paramount need to work for change in the world situation. Despite advances in the treatment of HIV/AIDS possible in wealthy nations, there remains a paradox in which those in greatest need for care in resource-limited countries often have no access to state-of-the-art treatment, and the HIV/AIDS pandemic continues to explode. Twenty-five million individuals have lost their lives worldwide and another 42 million plus individuals are infected. Each day, an estimated 8,200 additional people die from AIDS (UNAIDS, 2004). However, these type of figures are not new to any of us. In fact, these statistics are so overwhelming that it becomes hard to really internalize the reality that puts a face, a life, a family, and a lost future with these numbers.