Jal Paddy,

We celebrated the World Aids day just recently. Like everything else nowadays, however, we have quickly moved on to the next trending topic.

This shows how far down the line the disease has fallen from our list of ‘concerns’. In comes a false sense of security that this deadly destroyer of lives has moved on to another planet. How wrong?!

Yes, HIV/Aids may be no longer as quick and vicious as in the previous years, but it is still very much alive and wrecking lives. With the false sense of security comes recklessness, which of course leads to more people acquiring the disease they could have easily avoided and would rather do without.

The figures revealed on World Aids day by Public Health England estimate that close to 40,000 people in London alone have the virus; with at least 4,000 unaware of their status. A fact also worth noting is that at least 6,000 new cases are added to the existing numbers every year.

The government is considering compulsory testing for the whole population as the way to go. The argument is from the fact that people behave more responsibly once they know they are living with the virus.

Standing in the path of the policymakers are human rights activists. We will need a whole day to discuss the many instances where the English have taken this human rights thing too far.

What is wrong with having compulsory testing if it will greatly reduce the number of people dying from HIV/Aids?!

Failing that, what this country needs is the sort of Aids campaigns we saw in the late 1990s. For example, we had pictures of reed-thin men coughing away to their graves, and a few live interviews with those living at the sharp end of the disease.

Looking at how the virus is being spread nowadays, more especially in the UK, only infections through blood transfusion are the least minimal. For example, public health records show that no one has been infected from a blood transfusion in the last at least 10 years.

When it comes to cases of babies being born with HIV, the number is also zilch. The antenatal screening programmes for pregnant women are very quick to pick out the infected would-be-mothers and provide them with treatment. So, hardly any babies are born with HIV in developed countries.

The whole thing boils down to sexual behaviour. Simply put: unprotected sex coupled with many sexual partners and the easy access to casual sex online and through dating apps. Unfortunately, these are also the main cause of a vast majority of the new infections.

So, the big question is how one reaches out to these so-called modern- day folks, casually hooking up on social media and mating away like sex is running out of fashion. How do you spread the message that Aids is not just a mere health inconvenience, but the same old destroyer of lives?

While we wait for the powers that be to touch a nerve, I say getting tested; knowing one’s status and sticking to one partner wouldn’t go amiss.

Your friend,

Chris.