In June 2001, the United Nations committed to a plan to prevent the spread of HIV/AIDS and guarantee treatment for those living with the virus by 2015.
Dec. 1, World AIDS Day, a panel sponsored by the Center for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Life, the Black Student Alliance, and AQUADuke met to discuss whether communities and governments were living up to their obligations five years later.
"This year's theme is accountability," Ashley Walker, a junior and an LGBT student assistant, said at the opening of the program. "The theme is designed to inspire citizens around the world to hold their political leaders accountable for the promises that they have made on AIDS."
Panelists Richard Braithwaite, Bob Burwell and Jackie Clements focused on activism, awareness and their own personal experiences with the virus.
"Most of the changes we have seen in AIDS history have been due to activism," said Braithwaite, a member of the national AIDS activist group ACT UP. "Government just didn't say, 'Let us help these people because they need help.' We had to put a lighter in their behinds."
Braithwaite, who tested positive for HIV five years ago, said he acquired the virus during his time as a teenage prostitute and drug addict. He stressed the importance of the community and faith-based organizations reaching out to victims without passing judgment.
"We need to meet people where they're at and keep them safe-not condoning high-risk people, not condemning their behavior," he said.
Clements, a health educator in the STD clinic at Lincoln Community Health Center in Durham who was diagnosed with HIV in 1980, underscored the importance of individual responsibility in prevention.
"Nobody gave you that stuff, you laid down and you took it and at the time you was happy to get it. You just didn't know what else came with it," she said.
"HIV is preventable. You don't have to have it," Clements added.
As a member of President George W. Bush's advisory council on AIDS, she also addressed a question from the audience about the president's funding of abstinence-only programs in HIV/AIDS prevention.
"I think when you attack HIV, you have to attack it like an army going to war," Clements said. "You got to do abstinence, you got to do condoms, you got to do whatever, but it all comes together to fight the same war."
All three panelists emphasized that it is possible to live a productive life with AIDS today.
"I don't live with HIV. HIV lives with me," Clements said.
Burwell, who has been working in the physical fitness field for 20 years, said he was in better shape today than he was 23 years ago when he was diagnosed.
"Life with HIV, you have to earn. E-A-R-N. Exercise, attitude, rest and nutrition," he said.
"Anyone can earn life, but with HIV you really have to work at it," Burwell added.
Many attendees said they thought the panel was a success.
"I like to hear dialogues like this on campus-it's a nice break from tailgating," said junior Norman Underwood, president of AQUADuke. "You learn from discomfort. You learn from wandering into new territory."
Others said they felt that the discussion might have been better served if it had addressed how the Duke community could directly take part in the fight against HIV/AIDS.
"I wished I could have learned a little more about what I could do to help out," freshman Priyanka Chaurasia said. "They mentioned activism but I would love to find out more how I could get involved."
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