FINAL THOUGHTS

                  HIV/AIDS was never something I considered to be a problem in my area or a problem affecting people I know. The lack of media coverage in my area coupled with the minimal education provided to me about HIV/AIDS lead me to believe that the disease was a problem exclusively for those in poor, destitute, uneducated areas. After exploring the numbers, I find that this is simply not the case. While Morris County itself may fall below the national average, the individual towns of Parsippany and Morristown certainly do have an AIDS problem. It is troublesome that the local media and my school do not do more to highlight this problem in order to make the citizens of the county aware of its effects. AIDS is not a pandemic specific to those who are less fortunate, but rather, it can affect people of all racial, socioeconomic, and geographic backgrounds.

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