THIS is Wednesday.
World AIDS Day will be marked around the globe this Saturday.
The BAHA organisation, made up of many leading businesses in Papua New Guinea, is one of the very few organisations in this country to approach the commemoration of that day on a national basis.
BAHA has been running an innovative and informative campaign in the media in recent weeks, one that both alerts the public to the anniversary while giving practical and concise information to readers about the causes, nature, treatment and other aspects of HIV/AIDS.
PNG is finally facing and taking action against this disease.
At last there is a growing recognition that there are in all probability tens of thousands of unknown sufferers buried in our rural and urban communities, people completely unaware of their infection.
That’s the main reason why all involved in fighting this illness urge the public to make use of voluntary blood testing.
It’s painless, it takes five minutes and the result is normally available on the same day.
What does that mean for the community?
If our government can put together an accurate picture of the spread of HIV, then doctors, nurses and health workers can more effectively fight the disease.
PNG has had the singular good fortune to attract the attention of the William Clinton Foundation.
The foundation seeks to empower governments, particularly those in developing countries, to tackle the spread of this illness.
This is being achieved by providing channels through which governments can obtain access to generic anti-retroviral drugs in sufficient quantities to make significant inroads in the spread of HIV throughout the community.
The result of this co-operation has been the acquisition of drug supplies and their distribution to a number of strategically placed provincial hospitals and clinics.
Have you knowingly come in contact with an HIV/AIDS sufferer?
In the early and middle stages of this highly infective viral illness, few signs of infection can be seen.
But a growing number of us has seen the impact of fully developed AIDS on a workmate or a family member.
The tragedy is that little by little, normal life becomes more and more difficult to sustain.
Simple manual tasks become difficult and finally, impossible.
A sufferer’s ability to fight off opportunistic infections shrinks, so that even a common cold, a handful of accidental scratches or sores, or an infected rash is life threatening.
In a sense it’s wrong to label AIDS as the killer, for the victim dies of the common infection; the body’s immune system, ravaged by ongoing attacks from the invasive virus, can no longer ward off the simple cold or the infected sore.
And so friends and relatives have been able to do little but watch their friend or loved one slowly lose an uneven battle.
But now there is access to anti-retroviral drugs.
Only those who have witnessed the transformation of a patient who has been slowly dying can credit the impact of these drugs.
The drug regimen is literally the difference between life and death.
We are all aware that these drugs do not cure the disease.
But they do throw a very real lifeline to the HIV/AIDS sufferer, one that in most cases will allow the victim to access a quality of life that would have been unthinkable before the drugs became available.
There is a long and demanding road ahead.
All AIDS victims will inevitably die.
Many will do so years before they might have been expected to face their mortality.
And that means many years ahead during which families and the nation as a whole will face emotional and practical hardships.
What can you do to help?
A great deal.
The life-extending drugs are an indispensable man-made miracle.
But only the warmth and unequivocal affection of a close-knit family can provide an AIDS sufferer with the strength needed to fight on.
Many AIDS sufferers lack that support.
If you know of someone in that situation, we urge you to step forward, embrace that person and show them that they matter in your world and the world beyond.
Make that your commitment.
And wear red on Friday to show you share that commitment.