Speaker marks AIDS Day

Jim Bunn said he was the dumbest high school biology student in the history of American public education.

Bunn, a former journalist, said because of this he was determined to educate himself in medical research for an article he was assigned in the early 1980s on what was at the time a medical mystery claiming the lives of thousands — AIDS.

“Everyone was interested because everyone was scared to death,” said Bunn, now the president of Global Health Communications.

He spoke at UNC Wednesday about his work as the first public information officer of World Health Organization’s global AIDS program and his involvement in creating World AIDS Day.

The primary objective of the day, held annually on Dec. 1, is to draw media and public attention to the epidemic.

Saturday marks the 25th World AIDS Day, which has become the longest-running disease awareness and prevention initiative in public health.

Bunn said that when he first began advocating for awareness of the epidemic, an HIV diagnosis was an automatic death sentence, with no treatment available.

Every person that he interviewed for his story on the epidemic who was diagnosed with HIV died.

“Even in war, everyone does not die,” Bunn said.

Bruce Curran, a journalism lecturer at UNC, said Bunn’s efforts throughout the past 25 years have positively affected the lives of more than 15 million people and saved the lives of more than 1 million people living with AIDS.

“(Now) you’re as likely to be run over by a Coca-Cola truck as you are to die of AIDS,” Curran said.

Bunn said World AIDS Day also helped to accelerate acceptance of the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community, which has historically been stigmatized by the disease.

“The better angels of our society helped us to respond to our fears and phobias,” he said.

Despite the past decades’ advances in medicine and greater understanding of HIV and AIDS, Curran expressed a fear that people today are not as careful to protect themselves against the disease because it can now be treated.

Benjamin Meier, an assistant professor of health policy and management at UNC, said HIV and AIDS still pose serious health risks.

“It may not be a death sentence anymore, but it certainly is a life sentence,” Meier said.

But there is hope — Bunn said some in the medical field have indicated that the eradication of HIV and AIDS is possible, meaning World AIDS Day would no longer be necessary.

“The possibility exists that a Dec. 1st would just be a Dec. 1st, and wouldn’t that be a great day?” he said.

Contact the desk editor at university@dailytarheel.com.