World AIDS Day 2008: Educate Yourself, Test Yourself

Worldwide, 17.3 million women aged 15 years and older are living with HIV.

Today, on World AIDS Day, millions of people are coming together for a day of action, reflection and serious consideration about how this global health epidemic affects the most vulnerable communities.

To start the conversation, here is an excerpt from an op-ed by Dr. Anthony S. Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases at the National Institutes of Health titled, World AIDS Day 2008: Much accomplished, much to do:

Around the world, a staggering 2.7 million people were infected in 2007 alone. Globally, 33 million people are living with HIV infection, most of them in the developing world. In the United States, more than 1 million people are living with HIV. And 56,000 more people are infected each year in the U.S., driving HIV prevalence rates in some of our communities to levels that rival those seen in sub-Saharan Africa. Gay and bisexual men, and African-Americans in general, are disproportionately affected. The true ground zero of the HIV epidemic in the United States is in those communities.

As we go forward raising awareness, here are a few important facts about how women are specifically effected by AIDS:

• In the United States, women make up about one-fourth of all HIV/AIDS cases according to 2005 research by the Center for Disease Control, with HIV infection serving as the leading cause of death for black women (including African American women) aged 25–34 years.

• According to the Global Coalition on Women, half of the adults living with HIV today are women and the number of women and girls infected with HIV has increased in every region of the world.

• 76% of all HIV positive women live in sub-Saharan Africa, where women comprise 59% of adults living with HIV.

• 74% young people aged 15–24 years living with HIV in sub-Saharan Africa are female.

• In Asia, Eastern Europe and Latin America, an increasing proportion of people living with HIV are women and girls.

• Women currently represent 30% of adults living with HIV in Asia. Figures are higher in some countries in the region, reaching 39% in Thailand and 46% in Cambodia.

• In Ukraine, which has one of the fastest growing epidemics in Europe, women now make up close to half (46%) of adults living with HIV.

• In the Caribbean, 51% of adults living with HIV are female, while in the Bahamas and Trinidad and Tobago, figures are 59% and 56% respectively.

Additionally, beyond learning about the AIDS crisis, make sure to also get tested for HIV. The AIDS Healthcare Foundation, in coalition with hundreds of global partners, is mobilizing non-governmental organizations (NGOs), local and national governments, international relief agencies, faith-based organizations, civil society, and the media to conduct ONE MILLION Free HIV Tests during an extended World AIDS Day week commencing on November 26th and culminating on December 1st.

This worldwide testing campaign will leverage innovative testing strategies for streamlined and large scale testing - embracing a variety of rapid testing modalities, group pre-test counseling models, and easy anti-retroviral treatment (ART) referrals whenever possible. ART not only saves the lives of people living with HIV/AIDS, but it prevents further transmission.

So today, on World AIDs Day, please make sure to educate yourself and test yourself.