Pat and her dog
Pat's dog
Pat is an articulate schoolteacher who speaks to students about issues related to HIV/AIDS. Because of
social stigma, Pat had a hard time "coming out" to the rest of the staff at her school. Eventually
she did, and feels it was the right decision. She uses her own experiences with the disease to educate
and thereby help prevent the spread of AIDS among the young.
"In ... the United States ... an apparent increase in unsafe sex is triggering higher rates of sexually
transmitted infections and, in some cases, higher HIV incidence ..."
UN Report on the Global HIV/AIDS Epidemic, July 2002