AIDS and the family: families take care

In 1994, the International Year of the Family, the WHO's Global Program on AIDS (GPA) is marking World AIDS Day under the banner AIDS and the Family. Traditional and non-traditional families have a crucial role to play in addressing the HIV/AIDS pandemic. In the run-up to World AIDS Day--and on 1 December itself--GPA urges the world to focus on how families of all kinds are affected by AIDS, on how they can be more effective in prevention and care, and on how they can contribute to global efforts against the disease. For GPA, any group of people linked by feelings of trust, mutual support and a common destiny may be seen as a family. The concept need not be limited to ties of blood, marriage, sexual partnership or adoption. In this light, religious congregations, workers' associations, support groups of people with HIV/AIDS, gangs of street children, circles of drug injectors, collectives of sex workers and networks of governmental, nongovernmental and intergovernmental organizations may all be regarded as families within the over-arching family of humankind. Every kind of family should take care to protect its members from HIV. And all families should take care of those among them who fall ill with AIDS. Families take care. "Families whose bonds are based on love, trust, nurturing and openness are best placed to protect their members from infection and give compassionate care and support to those affected by HIV or AIDS," says Dr. Hiroshi Nakajima, Director-General of the WHO [World Health Organization].