World Aids Day

Not yours?" "Not mine," said Leon. He was standing on the parking lot that runs along Guilford Avenue beneath the Jones Falls Expressway, his stooped body wrapped in an old woolen blanket, and he stared at the ground yesterday morning and beheld an empty syringe lying by the rear right tire of a pretty nice car."You sure?""Not mine," he said, as though one syringe might have special markings indicating pride of ownership."I wonder whose," he was told."Some junkie's," said Leon. "Not mine, although I" ...His words trailed off. He pulled his blanket tighter across his shoulders.

Advances in AIDS therapies have begun to spare many children from acquiring the deadly virus in the womb, but authorities expressed concern yesterday that a rising infection rate among women of childbearing age has thwarted progress.As the nation observed World AIDS Day, doctors said they were encouraged by data showing that drug regimens have reduced the chance of passing the virus from mother to child from 25 percent to as low as 5 percent -- 5 out of every 100 children born to women receiving state-of-the-art care.

Want to hear about Karen Jungerman's World AIDS Day? It started before 7 a.m. "It was nothing out of the ordinary."Karen soldiered into the Don Miller House in Baltimore, a residential home for people with AIDS. It has five residents right now. Meaning Karen made five different meals: grits, cheese and eggs, toast and bacon, and scrapple. No, scrapple was the other day. Each day runs smack into the next.Karen then cleaned the five rooms of this old house, changed the sheets on five beds, and washed the clothes of the five residents.

With a quilt display today and a candlelight vigil this evening, health officials and medical professionals will join people infected with AIDS and the human immunodeficiency virus and their families to commemorate World AIDS Day at area colleges and medical centers.In Baltimore, an estimated 14,000 people are living with AIDS, and roughly half are not receiving care for the disease, according to officials at University of Maryland Medical Center.The medical center, at 22 S. Greene St. in downtown Baltimore, is holding a series of events to increase awareness of the magnitude of the HIV/AIDS epidemic -- including a presentation by Dr. Robert Redfield, director of the clinical program for the Institute of Human Virology.

With the fabric of lost lives in the background, about 60 people shared memories, prayers and tears as they observed World AIDS Day in Westminster Sunday.A grant from the Carroll County Arts Council to the Names Project Foundation in San Francisco brought 64 panels of the AIDS quilt to the local Celebration of Hope and Love.Those simple pieces of cloth provided the most poignant and telling testimony of the devastation wrought by the AIDS epidemic."If you want to make any sweeping judgments of who gets AIDS, this will stop you really fast," the Rev. David Highfield, pastor of the Westminster United Methodist Church, said as he pointed to the panels.

With a candlelight vigil tonight and a countywide conference tomorrow, Howard County health officials and members of the interfaith community will join HIV carriers and their families to commemorate World AIDS Day, which is tomorrow.The events will focus on the rights and treatment of those who are infected with the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), also called the AIDS virus."This is not just a health issue," said the Rev. Douglas Hunt, pastor of Columbia United Christian Church, which is the host for tonight's vigil at the Oakland Mills Meeting House at 5885 Robert Oliver Place.

By 9:35 on a typical morning at a downtown Baltimore AIDS clinic, nearly a dozen HIV-positive children already wait impatiently to see the doctor. Some read or color with crayons; others stare straight ahead -- they are too sick to play.The children are brought to this University of Maryland clinic by their HIV-positive mothers or by whatever adult remains in their lives in the wake of the AIDS epidemic: grandmothers, aunts, the occasional father, a foster parent.Families like these are the focus today of the seventh annual World AIDS Day, an observance begun by the United Nations to call attention to the estimated 14 million people worldwide who are living with the virus that causes AIDS or who already have the disease.

There was a tinge of irony in the fact that the U.S. Senate approved the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade on the day designated by the United Nations as World AIDS Day. With the GATT, national economies are embracing the freedom of movement long practiced by deadly viruses like the one that causes AIDS.When the U.N. first held a World AIDS Day seven years ago, most Americans still considered the disease a plague largely confined to gay men and intravenous drug abusers. That is not true around the world.

James Frederick Wilson could recite the alphabet when he was 2 years old and could read a restaurant menu by the time he was 4. He loved to dance and was good at math.On Jan. 16 of next year, he would have been 29 years old. But he died last year of an AIDS-related illness.Tomorrow, Pat Wilson will remember her son during an ecumenical candlelight vigil in Oakland Mills to commemorate World AIDS Day, which this year has as its theme the effects of AIDS on the families of those with the disease.

Six years ago, 11 concerned people made a commitment to help in the fight against the HIV/AIDS epidemic. That commitment is called Lifesongs and the committee, although incorporated and much larger now, still has the same goal.During those years they've raised more than $750,000 from their annual concerts. This year's concert at the Baltimore Arena starred singer Liza Minnelli. She belted out songs as only she can do. There was a $100-a-person VIP party prior to the performance, which the star didn't attend.

In remote villages throughout Africa, most people appear far removed from the financial crisis rolling through much of the world. The economy these villagers encounter is unconcerned with complex financial instruments and liquidity on Wall Street. But millions of these men, women and children will suffer the consequences of this crisis unless the new administration and Congress refuse to let the poorest of the poor suffer due to the mistakes of the richest of the rich. Many expect an Obama administration to be very friendly toward Africa; it is not every day that the United States gets a president with a Kenyan father and a Swahili name.

A Towson University graduate who contracted the disease from a drug-abusing boyfriend who pressured her to have unprotected sex. A Parkville phone company employee who thought her relationship was monogamous. A University of Maryland horticulture student diagnosed with the disease just years after college. All three of these victims of HIV/AIDS are Jewish Pikesville natives. One - College Park graduate Steven Kaufman - is dead. But his memory lives on through the organization his family founded after his death in 1990, and it was honored at a World AIDS Day event the group co-sponsored yesterday with the Towson University Athletic Department.

Ballots due Dec. 6 in local election for Farm Service Agency The Carroll County Farm Service Agency reminds farmers, ranchers and other eligible voters to cast ballots in the local county committee election before the Dec. 6 deadline. Ballots were mailed to eligible voters this month. Eligible producers who did not receive ballots should contact the local farm service agency office at 410-848-2780. Ballots must be returned to agency offices or postmarked by Dec. 6. All ballots will be counted publicly by Dec. 20. Elections may be challenged by nominees within 15 days after results are posted.

ON WORLD AIDS Day, Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao yesterday visited and shook hands with three AIDS patients at a Beijing hospital. Along with China's recent decision to begin distributing free anti-retroviral drugs to some HIV-positive citizens, the unprecedented, highly symbolic visit was another sign that the world's largest nation may finally be getting serious about one of the world's fastest-growing AIDS problems. If so, it's a desperately needed switch from the Chinese leadership's years of unconscionable denials in the face of spreading AIDS problems on the mainland.

A year after Baltimore Mayor Martin O'Malley declared a state of emergency in the battle against AIDS, health officials say they're worried that a drop in AIDS cases could lead to public complacency. "While AIDS is becoming more and more a chronic disease and less of a fatal disease, we want to avoid media fatigue from setting in and an attitude where people feel they can ignore what's still a very serious threat," said Dr. Peter L. Beilenson, city health commissioner. The number of city residents dying of AIDS has dropped steadily over the past decade, from 959 in 1993 to 93 last year, he said.

WE ARE FIGHTING a war against terrorists, but we face a larger one at home and abroad. It is a war on biological/viral terror that we can win through education, compassion and conscious effort. September 11th is passed and will be remembered next year. Today is World AIDS Day, but it is rarely, if ever, celebrated or remembered because HIV/AIDS is a lonely and seemingly forgotten disease. It once meant certain death for those who contracted it; now it's been moved to the ranks of a chronic medical condition -- one with no cure, but one that is manageable with the right combination of pills and drug cocktails.

In Baltimore City Water restrictions end at Hopkins after Legionnaires' tests Johns Hopkins Hospital has ended water restrictions in its Comprehensive Cancer Center that had been prompted by discovery of a trace of the Legionnaires' disease bacteria -- apparently after tests found no additional traces, spokesman Trent Stockton said yesterday. The restrictions, which included prohibitions on showers, tub bathing and drinking from water fountains, were instituted Oct. 24 after a trace of the bacteria was found during routine testing of the water supply for the Harry and Jeanette Weinberg Building, which houses the center.

With AIDS cases on the rise in Carroll, the county Health Department has organized an observance the day after World AIDS Day to raise awareness, stress preventive measures and offer reminders that, despite life-prolonging advances in treatment, the epidemic is spreading. A panel from the AIDS Memorial Quilt will provide the backdrop for the two-hour event tomorrow at the department's offices in Westminster. The staff will give a primer on acquired immune deficiency syndrome. Visitors will see exhibits and pamphlets that list statistics, and a college theater troupe will perform skits that stress safe sex. An AIDS patient will speak.

Just 1 percent of HIV/AIDS cases in Maryland come from Howard County, but health officials say county residents should not be lulled into a false sense of security. The risk of contracting the disease remains significant in the metropolitan area, they say. Some 212 people with HIV or AIDS reside in Howard County. That contrasts with 11,260 in nearby Baltimore, according to area health department statistics as of March 31. According to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Maryland ranks fourth nationally in new AIDS cases.

When Jeff Collins heard that a minority teen-ager had been diagnosed with HIV in Anne Arundel County earlier this year, he said he became angry. Angry, he said, because despite an array of AIDS awareness campaigns, it was clear some people have not been getting the message. "HIV transmission is worse than ever," said Collins, executive director of Love & Action, a national Christian AIDS ministry based in Annapolis. "We need to remind our young people that if they are sexually active, they are putting themselves at risk for infection."