When Pigs Fly!

Unless you’ve been living under a rock, you’ve heard the news.  At any given hour last week, you could have tuned into a network or cable news program and heard the same top story.  Swine flu.  In the early days of the outbreak, experts warned of a potential pandemic.  Translation?  Stock up on canned goods, gather your loved ones, and take cover in the nearest underground bunker!

The H1N1 virus, a new virulent strain of influenza which normally infects pigs has been transmitted to humans, is certainly nothing to play with. The origin is unknown, but there’s one thing we know for sure.  It’s serious.

This is especially true for countries with distressed public healthcare systems that cannot afford stockpiles of drugs. Until last week, transmission of influenza from pigs to human was uncommon.  Only about 50 cases had been identified since the mid-20^th century.  But that was before the age of frequent international travel.  If some sneezes in Los Angeles, you can be sure that someone in Singapore will catch it somewhere down the line.  We are one big community, living on an ever shrinking planet.

The good news is that disease is highly responsive to drug therapy, which includes Tamiflu.  Anti-viral drugs, widely available in the U.S., make the symptoms milder and can prevent complications.   It’s a disease we can control.

The swine flu virus that sparked so much fear worldwide appears to be no more dangerous than the regular flu virus that makes its rounds each year, said Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano.  Twenty five deaths in Mexico, one in the U.S.

So, why all the hubbub?

Why are governments ordering the slaughter of pigs?  Why are some officials shutting down whole school districts for weeks at a time?  Why are people, even without symptoms, crowding emergency rooms?  Why are others taking to public transit wearing Michael Jackson-styled face masks when less than 1,000 cases have been confirmed around the world?

Simple. We’re scared.

The hysteria has fueled all kinds of insanity.  “Stay away from pork!” one of my Facebook friends screamed on my profile.  Bad advice, since flu is not a food borne illness and cannot be transmitted through a pork chop.  “This is payback from the Mexican drug lords!” another one typed in all caps.  “Al Qaeda is behind this,” said another.  I quickly “un-friended” all three of them.

There was better advice to be had.  Wash your hands, the president told us.  If you’re sick, stay home from work.  If your children are sick, keep them home from school.  Sound advice for this and every other illness. 

But let me call your attention to a disease that cannot be prevented with a little Ivory soap and water.  HIV. 

The disease that causes AIDS continues to infect and kill people around the world.  In the U.S., the CDC counts 80 cases per 100,000 in 2008.  In 2006, there were an estimated 53,000 new cases according to the same study—13,000 more than the year before.  Most notably, African American women represent that lion’s share of newly diagnosed cases.  In fact, we are 23 times more likely to contract the disease than our white counterparts.  AIDS is among the leading causes of death for Black women and we represent that largest share of perinatal transmissions.  Our babies are being born with a death sentence.

The incidences of HIV are more than double for African Americans than for any other race or ethnicity.  Unfortunately, we are not alone.  In South Africa, the numbers are even more horrific. One in ten of all South Africans over age two are living with HIV.

And if there is one thing we know for sure, AIDS kills.  Sure, there are living enhancing and extending drugs.  But the probability of someone with HIV/ AIDS dying is 100%. 

It’s a statistic I know all too well.  For ten years, I watched my oldest brother Don fight for his life, tooth and nail.  He died nearly four years ago.  So forgive me if I am bothered by the wall-to-wall media attention paid to swine flu.  The uproar hardly seems justified.

I don’t mean to diminish the potential impact of the H1N1 virus.  I am simply calling for perspective. Forty-nine prep school students in New York contracted swine flu and with the appropriate medical care they all recovered nicely.  Thousands of New Yorkers are living with HIV.  Their chances of recovery?  Zero.  Here in Georgia, a single case caused officials to cancel the Cinco de Mayo festival that normally draws 35,000.

“A few hundred people contract the swine flu and everyone wants to wear a mask.  But millions contract and die from AIDS and no one wants to wear a condom!” another Facebook friend wrote. 

While you’re washing your hands and looking for a face mask that matches your new spring outfit, I want you to remember that a much more deadly, more sinister disease is still on the rise. 

When will I stop talking about HIV and the tragic impact is continues to have on African Americans?  As my grandmother would say, “When pigs fly.”

Goldie Taylor is CEO of Goldie Taylor Brand Communications and president of GIFT—the Global Initiative for the Testing and Prevention of HIV.