Brother says Toronto AIDS forum to remind world of disease's dangers

Published: 2004-07-23

TORONTO (CNS) -- A Canadian religious brother said the International AIDS Conference being in held in Toronto in 2006 will be a reminder to complacent North Americans that the deadly disease has not gone away. Good Shepherd Brother David Lynch, who attended the July 11-16 AIDS conference in Bangkok, Thailand, noted that HIV-infection rates have climbed back up to mid-1980s' levels as the fear factor has worn off. "Young people think they're invincible. Heterosexual people seem to think it's a gay disease. It's not," Brother Lynch said. "Everybody needs to wake up to reality." Just as it is in Africa and Asia, AIDS in Toronto is fueled by poverty, said Brother Lynch, who sees AIDS daily in his work with the homeless. "People who are homeless have the same access to the health care system that normal working Canadians do. They don't always have the same opportunities," he said. The 2006 conference will be the third time Canada has hosted the event. Montreal hosted the 1989 conference; Vancouver hosted in 1996.

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