It's World AIDS Day
Today is World AIDS Day, and it's as good a time as any to think about the 40 million people worldwide who are living with HIV. Their numbers are growing daily, fueled by ignorance and prejudice.
Over the years, I've just assumed that, as a species, we were moving toward eliminating or at least reducing the spread of HIV and AIDS. It turns out that I am wrong. For example, I didn't know that people in the UK know less about HIV transmission now than they did five years ago. Here in the US, our good pals in the religious right have been frighteningly successful in keeping people ignorant and afraid, and replacing facts with agenda-driven propaganda. This is real scary, because nothing helps spread a disease quite like ignorance, and AIDS doesn't care about your race or class or religion; it just wants to kill people.
If you have a few moments today (or any day, really,) why not spend them at the World AIDS Campaign, or World AIDS Day website where you can get the facts about HIV/AIDS, and find a few ways to help spread awareness about this disease?
Here's my tiny individual effort at education:
Protect Yourself With Safer SexThanks for reading. Now it's your turn.
The best way to protect yourself and your sexual partner from HIV is by consistent and proper use of condoms. Condoms are the only form of contraception that will protect you from HIV and must be used with care if they are to be most effective. It can take only a single episode of unprotected sex (for example not using a condom or a condom splitting) with an infected partner for HIV to be passed on. However, HIV is not always passed on the first time, so it's never too late to start practicing safer sex.
