Tuesday, 01 December 2009
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Today is World AIDS Day
Today, December 1, 2009, is World AIDS Day.
Millions of people around the world are living with HIV/AIDS everyday, including a new child every 90 seconds.
While many of people contract the virus through unsafe practices (including drug use and unprotected sex), there is one innocent victim in the mixture - children who contract the virus through mother-to-child transmission.
According to WorldVision.org, most children who are living with HIV/AIDS contract the disease through birth or pregnancy, or breastfeeding. Without protection and proper care, HIV/AIDS positive mothers have a 1-in-3 chance of passing the disease along.
You may be asking yourself - what is the exact number of people with HIV/AIDS? How many people are living in the world with this disease? Well, that number is nearly impossible to calculate accurately. In fact, while a new child contracts the disease every 90 seconds, another child will die from the disease every 2 minutes.
Now, see how mothers have a 1-in-3 chance of passing the disease along to their child? You may ask - why not just get treatment?! Well, only 1-in-3 mothers worldwide have access to treatment. That means that two-thirds of these mothers will eventually pass along the disease to their child, and two-thirds of the mothers will eventually die from the disease.
You do the math.
Are you not startled by these numbers?
- The estimated number in 2007 of people living with HIV was 38.6 million. That's more than the entire state population of California in 2008.
- There are over 1 million people living in the United States with HIV.
- Many people view HIV/AIDS as a "gay" disease. However, data suggests that 76% of new cases of HIV are found in women who contract it from heterosexual sex.
- Since 1981, more than 25 million people have died from this disease. That's the equivalent to the deaths in TWO Holocausts, the 9/11 attacks, Pearl Harbor, Hurricane Katrina, the 2004 Indian Ocean Tsunami and the Civil War.
Still not worried?
More than 250,000 people living with HIV/AIDS in the United States don't even know they have it.
Do you think we do enough to prevent HIV/AIDS? Are people still living wrecklessly?
So, on today's World AIDS Day - do something to make yourself and others aware. Get tested for HIV/AIDS. Read and educate yourself. Donate to the cause. Volunteer your time helping others become educated. Do anything to make sure that you don't become a victim, too.
For further reading or to help donate time and money to the cause, see:www.WorldVision.org/worldaidsday
www.bethegeneration.nih.gov
The Huffington Post - World AIDS Day Article
http://www.courant.com/features/hc-susan-blog-column-1201,0,1881129.column
Twitter, Facebook and Google's Impact on World AIDS DayFor further reading on HIV/AIDS on Healthkicker, see:
Response: I Have Unprotected Sex
Who Needs More Help: People with Cancer or AIDS?
An Interview with Smichy420: Life With AIDS
Do You Think We'll Ever Get a Handle on AIDS? - QOTD
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- From: msenergydrink
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Comments (10)
It's kind of odd that you included things like the 9/11 attacks, Pearl Harbor, and Hurricane Katrina into your casualty comparison for added emphasis, because the casualties of those events were pretty small.
I'm not too worried about it. The world needs diseases/viruses to keep the population in check.
@Pcgecko85@xanga - wait, who are you to tell anyone else, let alone THE WORLD, what the world needs?
AIDS affects *everyone* (if it hasn't touched your life in some way, yet, I promise you it WILL), and it is neither a joke, nor some bizarre means of population control.
(There's never been a more appropriate time to utilize the Glenn Beck-style joke than as a response to your idiotic notion that the world "needs population control":
Know who else thought millions of people needed to die to control the population? HITLER)
You want to control population growth? Don't procreate. Wear a condom everytime.
No one needs to die.
@missneeraja@tripcrazed - it's not like it's people killing people. It's nature killing people. There has always been some disease whether it be the bubonic plague, small pox, etc killing people. AIDS just happens to be natures current virus of choice. When AIDs is eventually wiped out something else will take its' place. That's just how nature works.
@Pcgecko85@xanga - Dude. I get it. You're young, you're ignorant, whatever.
1) There has not always been a bubonic plague or a small pox wiping people out. Please do like 4 seconds of research to understand these things better. You have google, for #&^$@ sake.
2) AIDS does not just happen to be nature's current virus. And even if you see it that way...what are you suggesting...that we always respect nature?
If that's what you believe, seriously, hand in your drivers license. Never drive again. Never go on the computer again, or use any modern technology that goes against nature. Never buy a house, live in a hut in the Amazon, never go to the doctor, if someone in your family gets cancer - encourage them to just die, it's nature's will after all, right?
Oh yeah, don't buy food/go to restaurants. Hunt in the wild and take your chances at poisonous berries/mushrooms.
We haven't respected "how nature works" for one second of our entire lives.
WE are destroying nature, we are the AIDS for nature.
All of a sudden we need to let millions die by a disease?
It's not how nature works, please stop making ignorant comments on the internet, because they stay with you forever.
And seriously, based on your beliefs, I'm gonna go ahead and say for real DON'T PROCREATE. Wear a condom everytime.
Your ideas need to die.
AIDS is a fate worse than death. It only kills you slowly, and only after it's turned your body into mush by making you susceptible to anything smaller than a dust speck.
@Pcgecko85@xanga - I thought you were kidding at first, and then realized you weren't. Either way, not a funny joke. Furthermore, you are obviously inconsiderate and ignorant. Yeahhh, let's let an epidemic take over and kill us all! Sounds like a plan.
@missneeraja@tripcrazed - Duuude, thank you for putting Pcgecho85 in his place. Totally necessary and you took the words out of my mouth.
These numbers don't startle me at all. I didn't know the exact statistical numbers, but that's mostly just because I can't keep statistics in my head for very long. I'm not good at memorizing statistics or dates.
However, I already knew everything that was in this post, I thought it was common knowledge to people. o.O;; That surprises me, that it isn't. But, other than that, the post doesn't surprise me.
Its sad that things are the way they are, though, when it comes to this. People need to be more aware and need to take the proper precautions, and need to do the proper things necessary when they found out that they are infected. The majority of people who have access to testing and treatment do get it. However, there are a lot of people who don't, or who continue to pass it along without caring.
Its actually such a problem that I think its a crime now if you have HIV/AIDS and know you have it and don't tell your sexual partner and pass it along to them.
People need to be more responsible. :(
Thank you for engaging the sad comments about the HIV crisis. We all are affected and we all must engage where ignorance and denial occur. In South Africa I live in the part where the highest HIV prevalence is found. In some areas close to me up to 25% of all the people there are HIV positive. There are 5.7 million PLAs (People living with Aids) in a population of 48 million in SA. Predictions are that by 2015 there may be 5.7 million Aids orphans, a third of all children. When we read such uncaring words we shudder.
I usually never comment on anyone's posts but I just had to say that I am appalled at how people are looking at the HIV crisis. If you are just going to be an asshole about it then just keep it to yourself. I am an 18 year old college student dealing with the effects of HIV. Luckily I didn't have it passed on to me but I lost both my parents and sister to it. Not trying to make a pity party, only a point.
People deal with this. It's really really hard and if you're going to joke about it or compare it to "oh people are the AIDS to nature" then you are seriously a very apathetic individual and in my own personal opinion, an asshole.