World AIDS Day recognizes the lives lost to the epidemic

Providing equal access to care is the message being put forward in this year’s World AIDS Day.

For the past 34 years, the Dec. 1 has been a time to reflect on the past and look to the future.

And a lot has changed in the past three decades.

HIV/AIDS hits close to home for Tom Hammond.

It is a heart-wrenching subject that he’s devoted his life to.

“I came out as a gay man during the AIDS crisis, and I lost lots of friends. I lost all my friends at one point to AIDS so it means a lot,” Hammond said.

As the leader of Fort Myers McGregor Clinic, he works to provide equal access to quality care.

Even in 2022, people struggle to get treatments they need.

Part of the clinic’s mission is to help the underserved in the community.

“The African Black communities and the Hispanic communities, who don’t often have the same access as other people might have,” Hammond said.

The health landscape has changed considerably since the early 80s when AIDS burst on the scene.

There are reliable treatments now, medications which can be taken pre- or post-exposure that are saving lives.

“We don’t see very many new AIDS cases, we just are really just treating people with HIV, which is really a great thing,” Hammond said.

That is a big win in Hammond’s eyes, the comfort of knowing that it properly treated, people will survive and thrive.

“I love seeing our patients come in, I love hearing them laugh in the hallways, and I like them going home, feeling healthy, and feeling that they’ve got the support and the resources that they needed from us,” Hammond said.

Never forgetting the 700,000 AIDS patients who didn’t live to see this day.

The White House announced a 5-year strategy on Thursday for ending the AIDS epidemic, setting the goal of 2030, in part by expanding anti-retroviral treatments.