Conference
rallies faithful to global challenges of AIDS
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A UMNS photo by Ginny Underwood
Sharon Thomas of West Ohio has been living with AIDS for 18 years.
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| Sharon
Thomas has been living with AIDS for 18 years. “We’re not all 60-pound
skeletal people anymore — not in the United States, anyway,” she said at
the “Lighten the Burden” conference on HIV/AIDS, held Sept. 8-9 in
Washington. Thomas is one of 1.2 million people living with HIV/AIDS
across the United States. She is also the vice chairperson of the board
of directors of the West Ohio AIDS Ministries Committee. A UMNS photo by
Ginny Underwood. Photo #061067. Accompanies UMNS story #543. 9/12/06 |
Sept. 12, 2006
By Mary Beth Coudal*
WASHINGTON (UMNS) — Sharon Thomas, vivacious and funny, appears to be the
picture of health. You might not think of her contagious smile when you put
a face on the HIV/AIDS pandemic.
But there she is, living with AIDS for 18 years.
“We’re not all 60-pound skeletal people anymore — not in the United States,
anyway.”
Thomas is one of 1.2 million people living with HIV/AIDS across the United
States. Twenty-seven percent of them are older than 50. People in the United
States are living longer with AIDS due to the antiretroviral medications
available, known as cocktails.
The 40 million across the globe living with the HIV/AIDS virus, the majority
in sub-Saharan Africa, are not as likely to have access to the
pharmaceutical cocktails to extend their lives.
Thomas, the vice chairperson of the board of directors of the West Ohio AIDS
Ministries Committee, was one of more than 150 United Methodists from all
over the United States to network, strategize, and energize one another for
the continuing fight against HIV/AIDS during a Sept. 8-9 conference in
Washington.
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A UMNS photo by Erik Alsgaard
Bishop Fritz Mutti and his wife, Etta Mae, speak at the "Lighten the Burden" conference.
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Retired
United Methodist Bishop Fritz Mutti and his wife, Etta Mae,
coordinators of the United Methodist Global AIDS Fund, speak at the
"Lighten the Burden" conference in Washington. Their two sons, Tim and
Fred, died from the disease in the early 1990s. The Sept. 8 event was
sponsored by the Global AIDS Fund, created by the 2004 General
Conference, United Methodist Board of Global Ministries and Board of
Church and Society. More than 150 people from around the world gathered
to learn more about the HIV/AIDS epidemic. A UMNS photo by Erik
Alsgaard. Photo #061066. Accompanies UMNS story #543. 9/12/06
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Dr. Cherian Thomas, of the United Methodist Global Ministries’ health and
welfare unit, told the conference attendees that the HIV/AIDS disease can be
compared to “a forest fire that is blazing.”
“Our immediate response is to put the fire out, but sometimes we cannot
douse the fire,” he said.
Dr. Thomas detailed four interventions — prevention, treatment, care and
support — to battle the flames of what the United Nations has called a
“global emergency.”
“If you really want to fight a forest fire, you have to have forest fighters
trained, an organizational structure in place and a system that prevents the
fire,” said Dr. Thomas. He lifted up the revitalized United Methodist
hospitals in Asia and Africa as such a system.
In particular, Dr. Thomas praised the United Methodist Church’s Chicuque
Hospital in Mozambique, under the leadership of Bishop Joćo Machado, another
speaker at the conference.
The last conference for United Methodists on HIV/AIDS was held 20 years ago
in San Francisco.
“We’re not going to drop the ball this time,” said the Rev. Donald Messer,
director of the Center for the Church and Global AIDS Fund.
*Coudal is a staff writer for the United Methodist Board of Global
Ministries.
News media contact: Kathy L. Gilbert, Nashville, Tenn., (615) 742-5470 or
newsdesk@umcom.org.
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