Thoughts of love and hope on World AIDS Day
Dozens of people gathered in Laguna Beach on Thursday to mark World AIDS Day by taking time to reflect on lives lost and yet finding words of hope amid the glow of candlelight.
About 70 people gathered around a wooden replica of a tree on Main Beach. Many wrote on paper hearts the names of loved ones who had died of AIDS, a disease that weakens a person’s immune system, and then hung them on the branches of the little tree, which sat on a table. The remembrance was organized by the city’s HIV Advisory Committee.
Participants also took turns speaking the names of those loved ones.
AIDS continues to be a “major global public health issue” that has claimed more than 35 million lives since the beginning of the epidemic, according to a World Health Organization website.
HIV, the virus that leads to AIDS, attacks the body’s immune system, specifically the CD4 cells (T-cells), which help fight off infections, according to the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services website. If left untreated, HIV reduces the number of T-cells in the body, making the person more likely to get infections or infection-related cancers.
Daniel Garza, chairman of the advisory committee, was diagnosed with AIDS when he was 30. Garza, now 45, said the news did not shock him.
“I got really sick with pneumonia and a stomach infection,” Garza said. “I had an idea. I was an addict [drugs], an alcoholic. I did not take care of myself.”
Garza said his family was not supportive at first but eventually rallied around him.
“I was cool about it, but they were scared,” Garza said. “I came from a traditional Catholic family. They did not have a lot of information available to them.”
The diagnosis spurred a change in Garza, to the point where the virus is undetectable. He attributed this feat to a good support system, medication, meditation and a reduction of stress.
Garza encourages people recently diagnosed with HIV or AIDS to seek help.
“There is a group of people willing to help you get through this,” he said.
But those infected often don’t know they have the virus. The WHO says 40% of the world’s population with HIV — more than 14 million people — remain unaware of their health status. And yet today’s drugs can control the virus and help prevent transmission, the WHO says.
Committee members on Thursday offered cards redeemable for a free HIV test at the Laguna Beach Community Clinic.
In the United States, HIV is spread mainly through anal or vaginal sex with an infected person and the sharing of needles or syringes contaminated with the virus, the Department of Health & Human Services website said.
B.J. Beu, who has officiated several World AIDS Day events in Laguna, focused his remarks on the significance of light.
“The light you hold in your heart reflects the light you hold in your hand,” said Beu, former reverend at Neighborhood Congregational Church.
Earlier in the ceremony, Beu cited a Bible passage from John 1:5: “The light shines in the darkness and the darkness has not overcome it.”
Twitter: @AldertonBryce
