By Lewis Diuguid, Kansas City Star Editorial Page columnist

Few people want to talk about HIV/AIDS.

Some tireless folks try. But HIV/AIDS should be a hot topic until a cure is found.

That’s why the book Gil L. Robertson IV edited is so important.

Not In My Family: AIDS in the African-American Community pulls the covers off this lethal problem.

In the book, which is a collection of essays, Rep. Donna Christensen of the Virgin Islands, writes: “HIV/AIDS is the plague of our time, and its statistics paint a ghastly picture of a crisis in our midst.”

“In 2005, the total number of people living with HIV throughout the world reached an all-time high of 40.3 million people,” she said. “In 2005, 3.1 million people worldwide died of an AIDS-related illness.”

AIDS is not a gay man’s disease or just in Africa. It’s everywhere, including here.

In his essay, William Yarbro said few people knew of AIDS before 1981. There’s no known cause or cure for it. By 1995, it was the leading cause of death among people age 25 to 44 in the U.S. Yarbro said AIDS cases have climbed in many states, including Kansas.

HIV/AIDS has hit the black community hard. “In the year 2000, more African Americans were reported to be infected with AIDS than any other racial/ethnic group,” Yarbro wrote.

Nearly half of the 42,156 AIDS cases reported in 2000 were African Americans.

Of all women reported as infected with AIDS, 63 percent were African Americans, he said.

Black children comprised 65 percent of all reported pediatric AIDS cases, and African American and Hispanic women together account for 78 percent of the AIDS cases reported to date among U.S. women. Heterosexual contact poses the greatest risk for women as well as sex with drug users.

Deya Smith, an actress and an AIDS activist, wrote that Rep. Maxine Waters had the right idea in 1998, asking then-President Bill Clinton to declare an AIDS state of emergency in the black community.

“The disproportionate number of HIV/AIDS cases reflected the massive lack of funds in terms of prevention and health care,” Smith noted.

But Clinton only called AIDS in the black community an “ongoing crisis.”

“He didn’t call it a state of emergency because that would have caused him to devote certain funding to fight the disease in the African-American community,” Smith said. “Today, our local, state and national leaders need to address HIV/AIDS as a state of emergency. In an emergency mode, the need is immediate.”

Not In My Family also conveys the courage, the hope, the love and the lessons learned from people who are living with AIDS and their family members.

Marvelyn Brown, an AIDS activist, writes: “It has taught me a lot about the families that raised me. HIV taught me a lot about what love is not.

“It taught me about responsibility when I didn’t want to accept any. It taught me what ignorance is. It taught me about stigma and discrimination. HIV taught me there are mistakes I can make and never get a second chance to correct.”

All of our children need second chances. Whoever the U.S. elects as its new president has to declare an HIV/AIDS state of emergency. Anything less will enable the disease to claim more victims.

Lewis W. Diuguid is a member of The Star’s Editorial Board. To reach him, call (816) 234-4723 or send e-mail to .