#WorldAIDSDay: IT'S WORLD AIDS DAY, TODAY - DECEMBER 1

It is timely and relevant we re-educate us all about HIV/AIDS. Yes, it is STILL real! Read on:

• About 35 million people have died of AIDS since it was discovered about 35 years ago
• The medicine used to control HIV is called the AntiRetroviral Therapy (ART)
• If properly administer (daily dosages), this medicine can prolong the life of someone living with HIV (even as long as someone who is HIV negative), and keep them healthy
• It can also greatly lower their chances of transmitting the HIV virus
• You cannot depend on symptoms to tell you if you have contracted the HIV
• Testing is relatively simple. You can ask your local healthcare provider.
• You can also get your personal test kit and DIY at home
• About 36.7 million people worldwide are currently living with HIV/AIDS
• About 1.8 million children are living with HIV/AID
• HIV (Human Immunodeficiency Virus) as the name implies, is a virus that attacks cells of your body's immune system
• The only way to know for sure if you've got HIV is by getting tested
• If ignored, HIV can lead to AIDS (Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome)
• Unlike a few other viruses, HIV when contracted, cannot be completely gotten rid of by the body system, so you live with it for life
• If left unattended to, what HIV does is attack the body's immune system and makes it so weak to the point where it is vulnerable to infections
• These opportunistic infections take advantage of the body and this is a signal that it has advanced to AIDS
• No effective treatment has been found, yet, but if HIV is detected early enough, with proper medical care, it can be controlled
• The medicine used to control HIV is called the AntiRetroviral Therapy (ART)
• If properly administer (daily dosages), this medicine can prolong the life of someone living with HIV (even as long as someone who is HIV negative), and keep them healthy
• It can also greatly lower their chances of transmitting the HIV virus
• Testing is relatively simple. You can ask your local healthcare provider
• You can also get your personal test kit and DIY at home
• Without treatment, people diagnosed with AIDS survive about three years
• But once someone has a dangerous opportunistic infection, life expectancy without treatment falls to about just one year
• HIV is spread through direct contact with certain body fluids of someone who is HIV positive
• These fluids include: blood, semen and pre-seminal fluid, rectal fluids, vaginal fluids, breast milk
• These body fluids must come into contact with a mucous membrane or damaged tissue or be directly injected into your bloodstream for transmission to occur
• Mucous membranes are found inside the rectum, vagina, penis, and mouth.
• Less commonly, a mother can pass the virus to her child during pregnancy, birth or through breastfeeding
• Sexual behaviors rate highest as a means of contracting HIV. This is followed by careless use of syringes and needles
• You cannot contract HIV by casual contacts like handshakes and sharing toilets
• HIV is also not shared via air, saliva, tears, sweat, mosquitoes and other insects
• You cannot depend on symptoms to tell you if you have contracted the HIV
• Be that as it may, here are symptoms related to HIV: fever, chills, rash, night sweats, muscle aches, sore throat, fatigue, swollen lymph nodes, mouth ulcers
• Symptoms of AIDS include: rapid weight loss, recurring fever or profuse night sweats, extreme and unexplained tiredness, prolonged swelling of the lymph glands, diarrhea that lasts more than a week, mouth, anus and genital sores, pneumonia, memory loss, depression
• Note that each of these symptoms can also be linked to other illnesses
• So, GET TESTED TODAY!