Your Status

10 things you should know about HIV/AIDS:

1) HIV was given it's name in 1986 after Dr. Robert Gallo and Professor Luc Montagnier of the Pasteur Institute discovered and claimed the same retrovirus in 1983.

2) About 34.2 million people are living with HIV around the world. Almost half of those people don't know their status.

3) As of the end of 2010, one in four people living with a diagnosis of HIV in the United States were women.

4) Women with HIV who take antiretroviral medication during pregnancy can reduce the risk of transmitting HIV to their babies to less than 1%.

5) Despite valiant efforts by the CDC and many other worldwide programs, there were 2.5 million new infections reported in 2011. Prevention is key: http://aids.gov/hiv-aids-basics/prevention/reduce-your-risk/fluids-of-transmission/

6) Heterosexuals accounted for 25 percent of estimated new HIV infections in 2010.

7) 14.8 million people with HIV are eligible for treatment. Only 8 million are receiving treatment. However, HIV treatment access grew by 63% around the world from 2001-2011.

8) Ryan White was diagnosed with AIDS on December 18, 1984. He was one of the first children, and hemophiliacs to come down with AIDS. He died on April 8, 1990, just months before Congress passed the AIDS bill called the Ryan White CARE Act.

9) July 25, 1983 San Francisco General Hospital opened the first AIDS ward, which was fully occupied within days.

10)  http://www.aidsquilt.org/

For more information, take a look at UNAIDS 2011 report: http://www.unaids.org/en/media/unaids/contentassets/documents/epidemiology/2012/gr2012/JC2434_WorldAIDSday_results_en.pdf

Get tested. Know your status.


                         - tsg