World AIDS Day, December 1

Today, December 1, is World AIDS Day.

Growing up in relatively small and relatively rural Napa County, it's easy to feel distant from HIV and AIDS. It's simply not talked about hardly ever, if at all, here. Thank goodness for the Unity League's leadership of the Academy Awards and AIDS Walk events and for the Queen of the Valley's CARE Network and outreach and Planned Parenthood's open talking about HIV/AIDS and testing.

Friends and family have been lost here due to the disease--as they were (and in places still are) lost everywhere. While new drug combinations and therapies make it more and more possible to live (and live longer than ever!) with HIV, it's not just simply another disease.

It's important we never forget. (Does anyone have information on the Queen of the Valley's AIDS quilt? I hear that it's back up and going...)

Have you or someone you love been affected by HIV or AIDS? Please share your thoughts and memories in the comments.

Go here for HIV testing sites and information in the Napa area.