The Fight Against AIDS Continues

published on September 28, 2018 by Joseph P. Williams , in U.S.News

Activist Paul Kawata talks to U.S. News about the potential to stop HIV and AIDS.

When he came to Washington in 1985, Paul Kawata was a young man on fire. A new gay rights activist from Seattle, he had dedicated himself to battling a deadly threat to his community: a menacing new disease known as AIDS.

After "passing the hat" to bury a dear friend who was ravaged by the disease, and whose family had abandoned him, Kawata joined the crusade against it.

"I told my family I'd be here for five years," says Kawata, executive director of the Washington-based National Minority AIDS Council, a health advocacy and social justice organization. When he got to Washington, Kawata says, "Margaret Heckler, the then-secretary of health and human services said, 'We'll have a vaccine in (two) years.' And I said, 'OK – then we'll go home.'"That was more than three decades ago. Kawata's still in Washington, carrying on the fight.

There has been progress – HIV, the virus that causes AIDS, is no longer automatically fatal, but is still incurable. "I never thought I would be here this long and I never thought that it would take this much work," Kawata says. "I think what keeps me here is the possibility that we can end it in my lifetime."

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© Copyright BC Centre for Excellence in HIV/AIDS
St. Paul's Hospital 608–1081 Burrard Street, Vancouver, BC, Canada V6Z 1Y6
Tel: 604-806-8477 | Fax: 604-806-9044
General inquiries: info@bccfe.ca
Media inquiries: communications@bccfe.ca
(Please do not use any of these email addresses to send personal information or book an appointment. To book appointments or contact the H2H clinic, please call 604-416-1517 or fax: 604-564-4893. Do not send your or your client's personal information via email.)

Our work serves clients and communities across British Columbia on lands and waters cared for and nurtured by the many distinct First Nations across the province. The BC-CfE humbly and gratefully acknowledge the stewards of these lands, particularly the xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam), Sḵwx̱wú7mesh (Squamish), and səl̓ílwətaʔ (Tsleil-Waututh) on whose unceded, traditional and ancestral territories our offices are located.