1 DECEMBER – WORLD SPIN DAY
On 1 December we celebrate World AIDS Day. This day was first celebrated in 1988.
The United Nations Joint Programme on HIV/AIDS has been commemorating this day since 1996. Since then, World AIDS Day has become the start of a year-long campaign focusing on prevention, education and awareness. The red ribbon is the international symbol of the anti-AIDS campaign. It was created 12 years ago by a group of artists who called themselves “Visual AIDS”. It is a symbol of solidarity with people living with HIV and unites people in the common fight against the disease.
The World Health Organization’s position is that HIV remains a major public health problem affecting millions of people worldwide. According to the latest estimates by the United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS, the number of people living with HIV worldwide by the end of 2022 is 39 million, of whom 1.5 million are children under the age of 15. Between 32.9-51.3 million people have died from HIV-related illnesses. Every day, nearly 7 100 people are infected with the immunodeficiency virus. By 2022, nearly 13.9 million children under the age of 18 have lost one or both parents to HIV-related diseases.
AIDS is a disease that is caused by the human immunodeficiency virus – HIV. There are three main ways of transmitting HIV: sexually – by having sexual contact without a condom with a person infected with HIV; by blood – by using needles, syringes and other injecting equipment contaminated with infected blood; from an HIV-positive mother to her baby – during pregnancy, birth and breastfeeding. The AIDS virus is present in most bodily fluids of an infected person, but only blood, semen and vaginal secretions contain sufficient amounts of viruses for infection to take place.
Prevention includes:
- Knowing and avoiding risky sexual behaviour.
- Proper use of protective equipment.
- Control in the use of individual syringes and needles and efficient disinfection of all instruments that may be carriers of the virus.
- Educating adolescents about sexual communication.
- Fight discrimination against people living with HIV.
- Knowledge of own HIV status.
- Provide antiviral therapy for people living with HIV.
HIV infection is proven by detecting the presence of specific antibodies in the blood directed against HIV. The time for antibodies to appear (test positivity) averages about 30 to 90 days after infection with the virus. Since the test result may not detect a recently acquired infection, if a risky contact is suspected, it is advisable to wait 3 months before testing. According to some studies, in rare cases where HIV infection is present, the test may not be positive until 6 months later.
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