What's in a name?

As you may be aware, I am involved with the AIDS Committee of Simcoe County.  As a result, my knowledge of what's happening in the HIV/AIDS community has increased substantially.  And since the educator in me is ... well ... pretty much all of me, I'd like to share some of my knowledge with you!



So, I want to pose a question to you ... feel free to respond by leaving a comment or sending an email.  If you don't want to respond that's fine, just give it some thought ...

What comes to mind when you hear the word AIDS?

For me, I think of an illness resulting from an incurable and fully preventable infection.  I think of the people I educate who are at risk of becoming infected, and may not even realize it.  And I think of the unfortunate and damaging stigma that has been ingrained into our subconscious minds since the early 1980's.

It's this stigma that I want to talk about in this post, and this stigma that I want you to think about while you're reading it.  There are so many misconceptions and misunderstandings related to HIV and AIDS that people are hesitant to associate themselves with organizations such as the AIDS Committee of Simcoe County (ACSC).  I read an article today that really speaks to this issue, which I want to share with you.  The message of the article is that the acronym AIDS is so heavily stigmatized that some ASO's (AIDS Service Organizations) in Vancouver are considering changing their names and removing AIDS [from their names] entirely.

You can find the article here: AIDS groups remove 'AIDS' from their names

I would really like to hear your thoughts about this!  Feel free to email me or post a comment.

Thanks for reading,

Candice