This post is made possible by support from the Let’s Stop HIV Together campaign. All opinions are my own.
Did you know that HIV and AIDS remain a persistent problem for the United States and countries around the world?
Did you know that about 50,000 people get infected with HIV each year. In 2010, there were around 47,500 new HIV infections in the United States?
About 1.2 million people in the United States were living with HIV at the end of 2012, the most recent year this information was available. Of those people, about 12.8% do not know they are infected. In the United States, about 13,712 people diagnosed with AIDS died in 2012. HIV disease remains a significant cause of death for certain populations. To date, an estimated 658,507 people diagnosed with AIDS in the United States have died.
MORE FACTS ABOUT HIVWorldwide, there were about 2.1 million new cases of HIV in 2013. About 35 million people are living with HIV around the world, and in 2013, around 12.9 million people living with HIV were receiving antiretroviral therapy (ART). An estimated 1.5 million people died from AIDS-related illnesses in 2013, and an estimated 39 million people with AIDS have died worldwide since the epidemic began. Sub-Saharan Africa bears the biggest burden of HIV/AIDS, with almost 70% of the global total of new HIV infections for 2013. Other regions significantly affected by HIV/AIDS include Asia and the Pacific, Latin America and the Caribbean, and Eastern Europe and Central Asia.
It seems to me that HIV is something that has sort of been of the fringe of my life since I was a kid. I mean I grew up in the 80's and there was always talk of AIDS and HIV because that is really when it came to the forefront of American culture. That is when we became aware of the devastating effect of AIDS.
For many of us that grew up in the 80's our first experience with AIDS was hearing about Magic Johnson. Depending on what circles we were in as young adults would determine how closely AIDS affected our lives. In the 90's as a college student, I had a few friends who knew someone that was affected or had died from AIDS. When 2000 hit, my mother lost a friend to AIDS and then within a few years, I too lost a friends to AIDS. AIDS was no longer that thing that reached the outer circles of who we knew. AIDS was a part of our everyday lives.
Walter and Cynthia both said that it could never happen to them. Walter didn't lead the kind of lifestyle where he could AIDS (his words). Cynthia said that there was no way that she could have AIDS. But the fact is that the face of AIDS could be any one of us. The face of AIDS looks like you and I. It looks like that guy walking down the street or the woman checking out in front of you at the grocery store. The stigma of AIDS has to stop because the fact is that AIDS doesn't discriminate. A Day with HIV is 22 September 2015
A Day with HIV is September 22, 2015. Share the message and support the cause.
Tweet with A Day with HIV on Twitter
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See A Day with HIV on Instagram
See Act Against AIDS on Instagram
Visit a Day with HIV
Facts on HIV in the US
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The lack of education in Africa is truly sad. I hate this horrible virus is still so out of control over there.
So sad about HIV but CHIKUMBUSO sounds great to give children and adults the education and training they need about this horrible virus.
Sounds like CHIKUMBUSO gives great advice to both children and adults regarding education and training that they need to understand and better arm themselves against spreading the HIV virus.
This is a great campaign to help bring awareness about HIV. I didn’t know it was still such an issue.
My son in law works at a hospital. He was telling me that the rate of HIV and AIDS in the USA is drastically increasing. There needs to be less stigma and more awareness and education.
AIDS is such a terrible epidemic, and it’s so sad the number of people that are affected. Thank you for bringing awareness to this issue!
Its crazy to know that HIV is still a huge problem, and yet its very little talked about. I appreciate people like you who bring awareness to people like me, who completely are clueless to these types of situations here in the U.S.
I’m thankful for the strides we’ve made in research and treatments, but there’s so much work to be done. Hopefully we will see an end within our lifetime.
This is such a horrible disease I wish it would something that could be eradicated, Education is the best way to prevent it I believe I am so glad there is someone that is willing to do it.
Great post! I agree, many people think it isn’t something that will happen to them,but you NEVER know!! Its such a sad disease and the stats are scary!
It’s definitely good to raise awareness about this awful disease. It can happen to anyone so you have to take precautions.
The naive-ness of many is such a sad fact! It is like germs, many think they dont need to wash their hands because they are not sick, ect. The more information we get out there, the better chance it sinks in for someone! Thanks for the info!
That’s a lot of people infected every year. So important to talk about prevention.
I believe that people should be more aware of how the disease is spread and that we must take measures to control the spread of HIV infection (and AIDS). I agree that we should stop the stigma and spread awareness instead.
I’m glad you posted this blog. AIDS, like cancer, doesn’t discriminate. Like you, I’ve lost friends to AIDS, but it seems a lot of people have forgotten it is a dangerous threat that we need to guard against.
I actually did not know there was an HIV day but I’m glad there is. I’ve known people with HIV and it’s heartbreaking that there is no cure.
This is a great campaign. We really don’t hear about HIV as much as we used to back in the 90s and early 2000s, but we shouldn’t forget about it.
I tweeted about it yesterday. I saw on the news some CEO has incresed a drug usually used by HIV/AIDs patients by 5000 percent going from just under 14 dollars to 750 a piill. He is totally under fire for doing it. He is some young former hedge funder named Martin Shkreli. The drug is over 62 years old and is called Daraprim.
You should see the tweets to this fella- it isnt pretty. He finally protected his tweets !
Great campaign to bring awareness and to stop HIV. The lack of education in Africa is the real issue.
This disease is still a huge problem! We need to do more to educate people about its danger!
HIV is so sad. I truly don’t even know what to say about it. CHIKUMBUSO sounds pretty awesome and gives great advice. HIV is such a horrible, awful disease.
It amazes me that there are still so many affected with this disease here in the US despite education and research. We definitely need to continue to spread awareness.
That is a scary thing. I am glad tat thereis an awarenessss like this to inform peple.
It’s amazing how much progress has been made towards quality of life with those affected by the disease, but there is still a lot more to learn. Spreading awareness is key to prevention!
it’s crazy how this is still growing at an exponential rate. it’s sad and i really hope that a cure is found soon.
I did not realize the statistics for HIV. I am surprised it is climbing still. We need to do more education so people can protect themselves.
I had no idea so many folks were affected. Thank you for spreading the word about this important day
Thank you for helping t bring awareness to this epidemic. People don’t seem to realize just how serious HIV is. It’s so important to teach them.
I remember talk of HIV and AIDS was so very prominent during the 80s when I was a kid. It seems that the effort to scare, educate and make people aware doesn’t seem as urgent before. I think people don’t “fear it” or even acknowledge it as much as in the past, and that’s sad. The kids of today (who are having sex earlier than before) are completely clueless to STDs in general. They think they are invincible.
This is a great campaign to help bring awareness about HIV back into the spotlight. It can happen to anyone so you have to take precautions, and education is very important!
I am so sad to hear that HIV/AIDS is still a major problem. We need to continually preach the message of safe sex to prevent the spread of this disease.