Do you know why December 1 is marked as the World AIDS Day? It is to create awareness about the pandemic AIDS caused by the HIV infection. Thousands of people across the world are suffering from this epidemic disease. There are also people who might be HIV positive but still don’t have any clue about their condition.
In the current world where we solutions for all the complex problems, we do not have any cure for this disease. The only thing you can do is to prevent the AIDS. Some of the studies conducted reveal that about 7 million South Africans are HIV positive and also around 40,000 people are diagnosed with AIDS every year across the globe. This is all due to the lack of awareness in people.
Why is this awareness important? How can it help people? Let us see.
- People become more vigilant about the disease and try to adopt measures to prevent them.
- It encourages all the people to get tested and know their health condition.
- An organization gets benefitted if they have all the information about the health condition of their employees.
- It helps people to understand the type of treatments available for HIV infected people.
- Through the awareness helps the people to recognize the HIV infected relatives or friends around them.
- With the help of these programs, the knowledge about this disease can be easily passed through the different communities in the society.
- It educates the people that it is not necessary to discriminate and ostracize people just because they are suffering from this disease.
- These programs help to elevate the morale of the employee and also to create more bonding between the employee and the employer.
- It helps the HIV positive people to understand how to live with their medical condition and hence, create an optimistic attitude towards life.
- It will make people aware of whom they have to consult to get the necessary advice in times of emergency.
- The awareness programs the people to know the type of test required to confirm your medical condition.
- It helps to eliminate all the myths and superstitions regarding HIV and AIDS.
Causes of HIV/AIDS
Some of the main causes of HIV/AIDS are mentioned below.
- Unprotected sex with a person who has HIV
- Using the drug needles used by a person infected with HIV
- HIV also gets passed from a mother to a baby during pregnancy or while breastfeeding.
Symptoms of HIV/AIDS
The symptoms are usually misunderstood as the flu. Their symptoms are the same as that in a person suffering from a viral fever. Below-mentioned is some of the common symptoms of HIV.
- Fever
- Sore throat
- Muscle and joint pains
- Headache
- Rashes on the skin
- Weight loss
- Fatigue
- Excessive sweating at nights.
Among the above-mentioned symptoms, some of them occur only during the early stages of the HIV infection. After a certain period, the person becomes normal. The second stage of the symptoms occurs only after a few years. Thus, it becomes difficult for the people to realize that they have got infected with HIV.
Consulting a doctor is the only option available to confirm if a person is affected with HIV or not. This disease does not exhibit any other severe symptoms in the patients. Though it is a contagious disease, it will not get spread if you talk to the HIV infected people or touch them. This is one of the common myths in our society.
The two tests used by the doctors to detect the HIV virus are ELISA test and Western Blot. If the HIV antibodies are found in the blood sample of a person during the ELISA test, the doctors will use the Western Blot to confirm the infection.
Though there is no cure for HIV and AIDS, the least we could do is provide the HIV infected people with emotional support. This will be possible only if we destroy all the myths about how this disease gets transmitted. Many people, even today, think that they will get infected if they touch or talk to the AIDS patients. This behavior will emotionally break down the patients and also alleviates their wish to survive in this world.
Also read: Importance of cancer awareness
Hence, HIV awareness is highly important to make people realize that the AIDS patients are equally human and deserve to be treated normally. All the information regarding this disease will also reach the people who cannot afford to consult expensive doctors. The role of AIDS awareness should, thus, be given more prominence in the current world.
You made a good point that HIV awareness can help with the morale of people who have it. A friend of mine takes dating pretty casually and seems to not be settling down any time soon with the way she seems to have different partners throughout the years. Maybe a yearly free HIV test will help in making sure that she is always practicing safe sex.