Sat, Jul 04, 2009
RANCHO RESORT MAINTANANCE POSITION Health Care Sierra Tucson Eating Disorders Program Coordinator General A1 Communications Cable Techs OpinionWorld AIDS DayOur view: The risk is grave, so pause today to review your understanding of transmission and prevention of HIV-AIDS
Tucson, Arizona | Published: 12.01.2008
The 20th World AIDS Day will be observed today, and it's a good time to issue a wake-up call:
This scourge has not gone away. It still cannot be cured. No one is known to be immune. You need to take measures, if you're in any way at risk, to protect yourself and your loved ones.
Granted, there now are drugs that can prolong the lives of HIV-positive people, but the AIDS-causing virus continues to spread and too often it is diagnosed too late for medical intervention to be of much help.
So take time today to renew your understanding of HIV and its transmission. Parents should have conversations with their teenage children about prevention. Older people, who may be dating again for the first time in years, must take precautions, including testing.
And HIV isn't a problem only in developing or poor nations. HIV is also not a virus exclusive to gay men or drug users. It can happen to you.
About 40,000 persons in the United States become infected with HIV each year, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
One person in five among the 1.1 million Americans who are infected with the AIDS virus doesn't know it, the Associated Press reported on Nov. 21.
Though scientists recommended two years ago that HIV tests should be done as commonly as cholesterol tests, there has been little progress, the AP reported.
One problem is that too many physicians don't understand the ease of today's rapid tests, which can cost as little as $15, the AP said in reporting on the Forum for Collaborative HIV Research meeting in Washington, D.C.
Dr. John Bartlett of Johns Hopkins University, who co-chaired the meeting, said only 100 of the nation's 5,000 emergency rooms routinely test for HIV; only 40 percent of pregnant women are tested.
Nearly half of the infections aren't discovered until it's too late for patients to be helped with modern drugs, the AP said.
All of this is a recipe for continued spread of the HIV virus and eruptions of full-blown AIDS.
So today is a good today to decide to get smart.
Make sure your children understand the risks — in 2004, the CDC estimated that more than 5 percent of new HIV infections are found in young people.
Make appointments for HIV testing for your child who is sexually active and for yourself and your partner if you're in a new relationship — or a longer term one in which neither has been tested.
Don't bury your head in the sand. It could cost you your life.
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