World AIDS Day is coming up on December 1st. The global day of observance was first created in 1987 by James W. Bunn and Thomas Netter, two men that worked for the Global Program AIDS at the World Health Organization and was first recognized in 1988.
The purpose of World AIDS Day at the time was to bring awareness and understanding of the fairly new virus that was spreading across the planet. Since then it has grown into a day where almost every country participates and has become an avenue to raise money for research, promote testing and continue to bring awareness to unknowing areas of the world about the dangers and risks associated with HIV and AIDS.
Every year there is a theme associated with the day. This years theme is “Getting to zero: zero new HIV infections. Zero discrimination. Zero AIDS-related deaths.” Quite the statement if you think about it but it’s a very real possibility thanks to all the hard work that has been done by everyone from small local charities to the largest such as the WHO.
There are 1.2 million people living with HIV in the United States of America and an estimated 30.6 million adults and 3.4 million children living with HIV world wide. In the U.S. it’s estimated that 20% of the people infected don’t know that they have the virus because of the lack of symptoms and lack of testing.
That’s why testing and education is so important especially in high risk groups. In fact the CDC recommends yearly testing for high risk individuals and being tested at least once if not.
This year, if you can, donate whatever money you can for research, spread the word and most importantly get tested.
