Core 116

I grew up in the small town of Weston, in Fairfield County, Connecticut. A region known more for inspiring The Stepford Wives than for discussing such "unseemly" subjects as the AIDS virus. It is unsurprising then, that I would have harbored misconceptions about the disease's impact on my own community.

This is my story...

When one considers HIV and AIDS, one is often led to recall the disease’s origins in the gay communities of New York City and San Francisco and the impact the virus has had, in recent years, on the African and Asian continents. Due to a plethora of articles, news stories, and television programs that emphasize the plight of AIDS in third-world countries, the infection has even gained a new epithet – “Global AIDS.”

It is therefore unsurprising that the majority of Americans, in the new millennium, fail to associate AIDS with any part of heterosexual America. I, for one, rarely considered the disease’s impact on my own community of Weston, Connecticut.

To me, AIDS was the result of ignorance and poverty. It was a virus contracted by Africans who were either uneducated on the means of prevention or culturally unwilling to practice such methods. The only segment of America that I ever considered AIDS affecting was the population of intravenous drug users. In their case I, regretfully, had far less sympathy.

     By the time I had reached high school the majority of people I knew were educated about how to prevent contracting the disease. I assumed that everyone else in America was equally well informed. I figured that if someone was stupid enough to inject themselves with an unsterile needle, they didn’t deserve my sympathy.

    It is only within the past few weeks that I have come to understand the falsity of my preconceived notions. Not only is AIDS a problem that affects the rest of the world, it is also a problem for my small county (Fairfield County), where the rate of AIDS cases per 100,000 people is larger than the national average. Although I, and many others in my position, may have harbored the belief that AIDS was some place else’s problem, the reality is far grimmer – AIDS is a threat to both my local community and the entire State of Connecticut.