…To say that the legacy of the AIDS epidemic was the pink paisley elephant in the room at yesterday’s Tick Borne Disease Working Group meeting would be an unthinkable understatement. Here’s a quick inventory of HIV/AIDS references:

• The Working Group is organized by the HHS Office of HIV/AIDS and Infectious Disease Policy, Office of the Assistant Secretary for Health.
• The Working Group’s designated federal officer, Richard Wolitski, “has worked for three decades as a manager, supervisor, and researcher studying HIV, STD and viral hepatitis risks and prevention.” Included with his biography among meeting handouts is a quote from Wolitski: “As someone living with HIV who experienced the early days of the epidemic before effective treatment existed, I empathize with many of these issues and ways that tick-borne disease has affected people and their families.”
• During the meeting, expert presentations and public comments were facilitated by Dazon Dixon Diallo, president and CEO of SisterLove, Inc, a women’s AIDS and reproductive justice nonprofit. Throughout her comments, Dixon Diallo repeatedly invoked the AIDS crisis and explained her involvement with the ACT UP organization responsible for making noise about HIV/AIDS devastation that it could no longer be ignored. She told meeting attendees that Lyme patients need the same level of self-advocacy. READ MORE.