Today is World AIDS Day. Every year on Dec. 1, people come together to remember those we have lost and to fight the spread of this terrible pandemic. Many people have lost someone they loved. Don’t ignore them; don’t just let this day go by. AIDS is still a killer; it is still out there, hurting people. You can do more. We all can do more.

In the West, HIV is a disease that has become safer and safer to live with. Due to improved access to antiretroviral drugs and increased awareness about the dangers of the disease, fewer people are being infected each year, and fewer people are dying each year. In the time since AIDS began ravaging the world’s population, we have accomplished a great deal. HIV is now a disease that people can live with, potentially for their entire lives. According to the Centers for Disease Control, there are fewer than one million people currently living with HIV in the United States, and fewer than 100,000 with AIDS. These are great achievements for the United States; we recognized a serious problem, we worked to correct it, and rates of new infections are at their lowest in years.

But we can’t simply be content with the fact that we have made serious strides in fighting AIDS. We can’t rest on our laurels and assume that the rest of the world has as much money as we do. We can’t assume that everyone can go to the store and buy the necessary antiretroviral drugs that can keep HIV in check.

AIDS may not be ravaging our country anymore, but there are still plenty of people that are infected or at risk, and they need our help. There were an estimated 2.7 million new HIV infections in 2010. That is 2.7 million people who have a potentially deadly communicable disease. That is 2.7 million people who may or may not even know that they have the disease. Those 2.7 million people might not have access to retroviral drugs or basic medical care. They might be giving birth to children, and passing HIV along to them.

Last year, 1.8 million people died from AIDS-related causes. There are an estimated 34 million people with HIV, 3.4 million of whom are children. There are children with this disease who don’t have access to education, drugs or any of the necessities for living with it. They don’t know what is happening to them, and they didn’t do anything to deserve it. Their parents passed the disease on to them.

No, we haven’t conquered this disease at all. It might be a little safer to live with this disease in the United States, but AIDS isn’t over, not by a long shot. It isn’t over until all those people can live out their lives, with HIV, and not pass it on. It isn’t over.

There is no way that we are doing enough; there is no way that I will ever believe that I, or anyone else, have done enough. We have a way to stop this disease from spreading; we can ensure that nobody else has to get it.

Today we commemorate all the people the world has lost, all the families destroyed, all the lives ruined. I lost my father to AIDS, and he is never coming back, but I refuse to rest until what killed him is wiped from the face of the earth.

No more people need to die. We can save them; all we need to do is pay more attention. And never forget.