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Pictured: Volunteers from the Charlotte Prime Timers delivered a carload of Wish List items to House of Mercy on Nov. 21.

On World AIDS Day, Vatican renews call for greater access to therapy

VATICAN CITY — The deaths each year of more than a million people from AIDS, the suffering of their families and the new infections of hundreds of thousands of infants are unacceptable when the medicines needed to prevent them exist, a Vatican official said.

Archbishop Zygmunt Zimowski, president of the Pontifical Council for Health Care Ministry, said World AIDS Day must be a time "to promote universal access to therapies for those who are infected, the prevention of transmission from mother to child, and education" in responsible sexuality.

In a statement Dec. 1, he said that despite the development of antiretroviral drugs 20 years ago, an estimated 1.8 million people still die of AIDS each year.

"These are people who could lead normal lives if they only had access to suitable pharmacological therapies," he said.

The deaths "are no longer justifiable," the archbishop said, nor is the pain experienced by their families and fact that hundreds of thousands of children are orphaned each year.

Universal access to antiretroviral therapy is essential, he said. But greater efforts also must be made in educating people, especially the young, in a responsible exercise of their sexuality, one that "privileges abstinence, conjugal faithfulness and the rejection of sexual promiscuity," he said.

— Cindy Wooden, Catholic News Service

Pictured: The late Lloyd George, recent resident at House of Mercy, enjoyed social events with volunteers and staff. Read more about Lloyd at www.thehouseofmercy.org/11fall.pdf. House of Mercy holds open house for 20th anniversary on World AIDS Day

BELMONT — House of Mercy celebrated its 20th Anniversary Open House on World Aids Day.

House of Mercy is a nonprofit residence providing compassionate, specialized care for low-income persons living with AIDS. Since its founding twenty years ago by the Sisters of Mercy, more than 280 men and women have made their home at House of Mercy.

During the open house, the House of Mercy remembered the men and women the house has served since 1991. 

The number of newly identified cases of HIV/AIDS continues to grow. People living with HIV disease in the U.S. total over 1.1 million, including more than 468,000 with AIDS. The global theme for 2011 World AIDS Day is "Getting to zero: Zero New HIV Infections. Zero Discrimination. Zero AIDS Related Deaths." 

More than half of new HIV infections in the U.S. occur in the South. The South has the greatest number of people estimated to be living with AIDS, as well as the most AIDS deaths and new AIDS diagnoses.

For a photo tour, video and wish list, visit www.thehouseofmercy.org.