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Articles
Get the Message Out: World AIDS Day
12/7/2007
December 1st of every year, World AIDS DAY is dedicated to working towards educating everyone in the world about HIV and AIDS and to work hard to educate everyone about the fact that AIDS is spreading and anyone, even teenagers, can get it. In fact, over 35,000 teenagers have HIV in the United States today. Anyone of any age and of any sexual orientation can get AIDS. You don’t have to be gay, bisexual or an intravenous drug user to get AIDS.
How many people have HIV?
Over a million people are living with HIV in the United States. While African Americans and gay and bisexual men of all races remaining most severely affected, straight teens and adults get HIV, too.
What can help stop it from spreading?
Get tested
A major problem is that many Americans with HIV are not diagnosed until years after they were infected, when it may be too late to fully benefit from available treatments. And one-quarter of people with HIV — at least 250,000 Americans — still do not realize they are infected!
Protect yourself from HIV
You have several choices.
- Don’t have sex until you feel you are truly emotionally ready, are in a committed relationship, and both of you have been tested.
- Don’t have sex with anyone who hasn’t been tested.
- Always use a condom but remember… a condom is not 100% protection against getting HIV or any other sexually transmitted disease.
- You can get HIV from oral, vaginal, or anal sex, so learn as much as you can about HIV/AIDS prevention. Go to the websites below and learn the facts.
Get the Message Out
If we are to defeat HIV/AIDS, everyone must know whether or not they are infected, so those who are HIV positive can receive life-extending treatment and take steps to protect their partners. The medical community now recommends that HIV screening become a routine part of medical care for all everyone between the ages of 13 and 64. These recommendations are a very important part of the United States program of HIV prevention and care. Getting the message out about getting tested will help reach many of the quarter-million Americans who don’t know they have HIV.
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