Thanks… I guess

In my own life, I have so much to be thankful for. I have the bestest husband ever, a great home, a career, good food, good friends, far more interests than I have time for, etc., etc. Yet, it saddens me and scares me a bit to read the paper. Rarely does a particular headline make me cringe or worry. Rather, a combination of headlines work together to make my stomach twist into knots. Murder, anger, poverty, mudslides, hurricanes, war, suspicion, fraud, violence, tidal waves, cruelty, death, and of course disease.

 

Every now and again, though, a wee-bit of good news actually manages to percolate to the surface in the otherwise bleak sea of sad headlines. Yesterday was such a day when I read about a breakthrough in terms of HIV prevention. Long story short, one of the drugs that has already been out for a while used in HIV treatment shows great promise as a prevention. Key phrase – PREVENTION. While we don’t yet have a vaccination, a daily regimen of a single pill shows great promise in terms of preventing infection.

 

THIS IS HUGE!!!! To help put it in perspective, this is pretty much the strategy that was used in getting tuberculosis under control. We have not yet beaten that particular disease, and it is still a scary threat. But tuberculosis is no longer the scourge and plague that it was a little more than 100 years ago because we were able to make strides and get it under control.

 

We still have a long way to go. There is no cure yet. There is no vaccination yet. Education and understanding are still leagues behind. But this is a baby step that is important to acknowledge. And this is one of many things for which I am thankful this year!