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Shedding Light on the AIDS Epidemic
A local man who's HIV positive and part of a local organization continuing awareness of the disease in the community says yesterday shouldn't completely be about those who are afflicted with either that or AIDS, or those who have lost their lives.

Wayne Townsend is the Secretary of the Western Illinois HIV/AIDS Task Force, and was part of the organization's annual tree-lighting ceremony Monday at the Knox County Health Department to officially mark World AIDS Day.

Townsend says more than just the sheer statistics that the number of HIV and AIDS continue to go up, he's concerned about the biggest sector of that growth as he sees it...teenagers.

"We expect teenagers that are hormonal and don't have full brain development to make the right choices all the time, and we're doing it without all the information they need," Townsend said. "And I'm not talking about sex education, I'm talking about the ramifications of STI's (sexually-transmitted infections)...the long-term ramifications and the fact that they probably will eventually die."

Townsend says AIDS is more about people -- given that there are one-million people in the United States with AIDS, and an estimated 53,000 new cases this year.

He says that 94 people in Knox County have HIV or AIDS, according to the most recent statistics.


(A tree outside the Knox County Health Department was lit in red Monday night to symbolize World AIDS Day. WGIL News story and photo by Will Stevenson.)
12 01 08 by Newsroom
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