World AIDS DAY

As I think about today being World AIDS Day, it is hard for me to separate the facts from feeling the personal heartache of this disease.  I know many of you reading this feel the same way.  Almost 30 years and 24 million people have died.  24 MILLION...I cannot even fathom this number as it is unreal to me. 

I just know that number is compounded by the number of sisters, brothers, mothers, fathers, aunts, uncles, cousins, grandparents, significant others (all naming conventions) and friends that are missing their loved ones.  That adds up to far more than 24 million remaining heartaches.  Last year 2 million people died and 3 million more became infected.

As I listened to Whoppi on the View this morning start the program with mentioning these stats I felt numb and sad.  50% worldwide are women living with AIDS.  I started doing research and confirmed that yes, these numbers are true. As much progress as we have made we still have 33 million people infected with HIV.

33 Million...