Health : World Aids Day 2014
It has been 33 years since the first reported cases of HIV/AIDS in 1981 and since 1988, December 1st has been recognized as “World AIDS Day”. The intention of the day is to raise awareness, increase donations for HIV/AIDS related causes, fight prejudice and HIV/AIDS related stigma, and to simply remind people that HIV/AIDS has not gone away.
There are about 34 million people worldwide that are living with HIV with 2.7 million infected in 2010. In the United States there are around 1.2 million people living with HIV with about a fifth of them unaware of their infection, in Canada about 30% of those that are HIV positive are unaware of their infection. There are approximately 54,000 new infections each year in the United States.
How can you help reduce HIV/AIDS? You can start by knowing the facts, HIV/AIDS has not gone away and although there are treatments for HIV, AIDS is still a significant health issue.
Next you can get tested! With as many as 20% – 30% of people estimated to be infection with HIV being unaware of their infection, it is possible for you to be infected and not know it. HIV infection does not always have symptoms. If you have already been tested, get tested again! The CDC recommends that Gay men be tested at least annually, with men who are more sexually active being tested every 3-6 months.
If you are HIV positive stay on course, treatment is a form of prevention. As an example of this, in 2008 a group of Swiss scientists produced the first ever consensus statement which asserted that an HIV positive person who is taking effective antiretroviral therapy, has an undetectable viral load and is free from STDs, has a negligible risk of infecting others with the virus.
One of the most impactful ways for us all to care for each other is to work together to fight HIV/AIDS Stigma. This site from Canada, on HIV Stigma provides some good information and perspectives on HIV stigma. The site also offers surprising information on the HIV incidence in Canada.
Too many people do not know they have HIV and too few people with HIV are receiving proper prevention, treatment, and care services. While science learns more, and new options for vaccines and prevention such as PrEP are explored, we must all take the initiative to get tested, and if we are HIV positive, take care of ourselves not only for ourselves but to do all we can to prevent the spread of HIV.
Dave
I am HIV+,been so since last year-undetectable,on complera,1 pill a day…and I got tested every 6 month’s as I preferred unprotected/bareback sex!Am doing wonderfully,and doctor’s tell me I should live a normal lifespan-in my 50’s now!Happy Holiday’s All!!
Even with all the new treatment options available, the basic rules are the same. Get tested, Play Safe, and Live Life.
young guys these days don’t care about the hardships guys suffered in the past. THEY want to be infected now! what would those guys who died say about that?
If the NIH, CDC, Dr. Anthony Fauci and Dr. Robert Gallo invented a phony disease, and used the elitist, corporate controlled media and the Fraud and Deception Administration (aka FDA) to spread the deception, would the public believe it? The more I learn about the HIV-causes-AIDS theory, the more I’m convinced the answer to my question is a definite “YES”.
Required reading before you write me off as a conspiracy theorist is the book “Inventing the AIDS Virus” by Peter H. Duesberg. Or, watch youtube videos “10 Scientific Arguments Why HIV Cannot Cause AIDS” and “AIDS is a Hoax! Christl Meyer Explodes the HIV/AIDS Theory”. (There are plenty of other videos, too.)
The real tragedy is millions were deceived into believing they had a disease for which the best treatment was AZT. If you learn about how AZT works (interferes with the body’s ability to create T cells, destroying your immune system), it will become obvious those who took AZT and later died, died from the effects of AZT and not some phantom retrovirus that only two French virologists Dr. Françoise Barré-Sinoussi and Dr. Luc Montagnier, and Dr. Gallo allegedly were able to isolate. Nobody else has ever been able to isolate this retrovirus. They only allegedly find antibodies to it. So the question is, does HIV really exist? I think not.
I don’t deny AIDS is real. Aside from AZT, there are many ways to weaken or compromise the immune system, including poor diet, using illicit drugs, abusing alcohol, lack of adequate sleep, smoking, receiving semen in the ass, exposure to multiple STDs, etc. Not being judgmental, but simply stating a fact, many gay men have multiple of these characteristics that weaken the immune system.
We may never know for certain what really started the AIDS “epidemic”, because the medical Nazis really weren’t interested in the answer. They were more interested in creating a phantom virus, and spreading fear and misinformation, so people would line up to get prescriptions to a horrible drug (AZT) that should NEVER have been approved. They simply could not pass up creating a crisis and preying on unsuspecting victims for the sole purpose of enriching themselves.
Please take the time to do your own research. It might save your life.
My brother died of AIDS in 1995 at the age of 39. Only AZT was available then to help him. Now there are so many options. Today, I wish to thank the scientists, researchers, and doctors who have done so much to help stop the spread of HIV/AIDS in our world. Thank you!
I am positive since early on this year, I have been on stribild one pill a day soon to be undetectable, I to was a bareback only person I’m late fifties dr says if I keep on my meds I’ll die of something else other than the virus.i can live a very healthy life thanks only to the research and progress of medicine.i did get tested yearly….
FYI:
Many people are very afraid, needlessly:
From “The Swiss Statement”:
“In February 2006, Swiss experts issued a statement concluding that HIV-positive individuals who are on effective antiretroviral therapy (ART),…,cannot transmit HIV through sexual contact.”
I’m not an extremist, but many base their fear of HIV on old, outdated hearsay.
[I strongly suspect that many people commonly have sexual encounters with people who are unaware of their status, or are not upfront. I think the real danger is from those newly infected, or don’t know they are.]
So, safer than condoms alone, but less safe than condoms & effective treatment.
[More recent ([ ]s need to be removed):
medscape.[com]/viewarticle/782173?nlid=30890_721&src=wnl_edit_medp_aids&uac=50557PJ&spon=1]
medscape.[com]/viewarticle/805675?nlid=31748_721&src=wnl_edit_medp_aids&uac=50557PJ&spon=1
medscape.[com]/viewarticle/805740?nlid=31748_721&src=wnl_edit_medp_aids&uac=50557PJ&spon=1
More:
medscape.[com]/viewarticle/818121?nlid=44943_721&src=wnl_edit_medp_aids&uac=50557PJ&spon=1
Of Particular interest:
[http:]//www.cdc.[gov]/hiv/prevention/research/art/
http://www.aidsmap.[com]/Treatment-is-prevention-HPTN-052-study-shows-96-reduction-in-transmission-when-HIV-positive-partner-starts-treatment-early/page/1879665/
http://www.aidsmap.[com]/No-one-with-an-undetectable-viral-load-gay-or-heterosexual-transmits-HIV-in-first-two-years-of-PARTNER-study/page/2832748/
“The second large study to look at whether people with HIV become non-infectious if they are on antiretroviral therapy (ART) has found no cases where someone with a viral load under 200 copies/ml transmitted HIV, either by anal or vaginal sex.”
More:
http://www.medscape.[com]/viewarticle/827135?nlid=59705_721&src=wnl_edit_medp_aids&uac=50557PJ&spon=1
http://www.medscape.[com]/viewarticle/818611
[in the end, I strongly suspect a person is safer with me, BB, who knows they have a very low VL, than they are with a stranger with a condom.]
Very recent:
http://www.nbcnews.[com]/health/health-news/most-americans-hiv-missing-treatment-cdc-says-n255921