World AIDS Day – December 1, 2008

In recent months, AIDS has been getting a lot of press from the good news that an end to the AIDS epidemic might be on the horizon to the bad news of possibly those suffering from AIDS being electronically tagged as a deterrent to spreading the virus. Getting headlines since the early 1980s, this incurable disease is being thrust into the spotlight again on December 1, for World AIDS Day.

The term AIDS, Aquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome, was first coined in July 1982 when legislators in Washington D.C. were trying to define this unknown disease that had cropped up suddenly with groups being affected across the country—452 reported cases throughout 23 states starting in New York and California—whereas it had formally been called names primarily associated with the homosexual preference of the carriers. Once heterosexuals started contracting the disease, the new name was born and AIDS became a regular acronym. Isolation of the virus that causes the disease was found quickly, but it was known by two names and caused another dispute so in 1986, the Human Immunodeficiency Virus or HIV was cemented into medical books, minds, and dictionaries everywhere.

HIV causes AIDS which damages the body’s immune system eventually weakening it until the virus kills the body’s fighting antibodies. The body relies on its natural defenses against infections and certain types of cancers but with the progressive nature of HIV, the body gives in and the disease slowly takes over, erasing the immune system. 

HIV/AIDS can be spread by a number of actions because bodily fluids transfer the virus. Most common is unprotected sex with an infected person while others include sharing intravenous needles between drug users who have the virus, unclean needles used to give tattoos and/or body piercings, pregnancy, birth, or breast-feeding by a mother with HIV, or receiving a blood transfusion or accidentally sharing blood with another person who has contracted the virus.

HIV/AIDS prevention is a step in the right direction to eradicate this pandemic thought to first be spread as early as the 1970s. With sex being the most popular mode of contraction, abstinence is said to be best, followed by being faithful to one sexual partner, and birth control in all its forms.

Countries all over the world—under the name Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS or UNAIDS—have banded together to form a campaign specifically aimed at fighting AIDS. The World AIDS Day theme for 2008 is Leadership, and their motto is “Stop AIDS. Keep the Promise.” Leadership seems to be the perfect theme for a day where different aid groups across the globe collaborate for one common cause: the awareness and cure for the most curious of all diseases.

According to the UNAIDS 2008 Report on the Global AIDS Epidemic, 2007 statistics show that approximately 30.9 million adults (15 years and up) and 2 million children are living with AIDS worldwide.  Of those 32.9 million people, 2.7 million are newly infected each year, and AIDS-related deaths in adults and children for 2007 was a shocking 2 million.

Join the fight, this December 1, and help the world defend itself against AIDS. Volunteers all over the world combine their donations and their time by trying to prevent the spread of HIV by awareness and education, helping to alleviate the pain and suffering of AIDS patients especially children living in impoverished countries with not enough medical attention, and to give relief by aiding researchers in their task of finding a cure. By making a difference now, hopefully future generations will appreciate our efforts in saving the world from infectious diseases that to us only seemed incurable.