# 4107
Nearly 30 years after AIDS first emerged into the world’s consciousness (it was around long before we knew about it), it is hard to find anyone who doesn’t know someone who has been touched by the AIDS pandemic.
I’ve lost friends and relatives to AIDS, as have many of you.
Somehow, AIDS has become so commonplace, for many people it has become the forgotten pandemic.
In some ways, I suppose, that’s progress. The hysteria of the 1980s, the unfounded fears of contagion, and the stigma of the disease are low points in our history best left in our wake.
But lest we forget, AIDS claims thousands of lives each day. In some African nations, whole generations are at risk.
The life expectancy in South Africa has been so thoroughly impacted, that instead of living 64 years as they did 20 years ago, the average South African today is expected to only live to age 50.
The US government has an AIDS website called AIDS.GOV and you can follow them on Twitter at @AIDSGov.
