Today is World AIDS Day

The 1st of December, World AIDS Day, is the day when individuals and organizations from around the world come together to bring attention to the global AIDS epidemic. 2008 marks the 20th anniversary of World AIDS Day. While we have come a long ways since 1988, there is still much more to be done.

Worldwide 33 million men, women and children are estimated to be living with HIV/AIDS. In the United States, more than 1 million people are living with HIV and one-fourth of them are unaware that they are infected.

Today, We Love Soaps will take a look back at some of the first AIDS stories told on daytime soaps.

Reading about these stories and watching old clips reminded me how daytime was navigating in unchartered territory back in 1987 when ANOTHER WORLD's Dawn and ALL MY CHILDREN's Cindy were introduced. It also made me think that daytime stories should have progressed farther by 2008 than they have.

Kudos to GENERAL HOSPITAL for keeping the character of Robin Scorpio around and using her HIV status to educate viewers all these years.

But where are the other stories? Why does the rampant unprotected sex on soaps only lead to unwanted pregnancies instead of STDs and HIV? Why are most social issues generally absent these days?

At some point in the 90s, shows like MTV's THE REAL WORLD began to tackle issues like HIV and AIDS in a much better and more realistic way than the daytime soaps and that's too bad. Soaps can educate viewers like no other medium and entertain at the same time. I hope we can see that again some day.