World AIDS Day: Remember, Raise Awareness, & Help

Today is a somber day. It is a day for raising awareness and remembering those that have lost their lives to the world wide pandemic that is HIV/AIDS. Since the early 1980’s, this disease has ravaged and torn apart countless communities, families, and taken the lives of our loved ones all too soon. Today is World AIDS Day.

In observation of World AIDS Day, people the world over are urged to find out their HIV status by being tested, pledging to protect themselves and their loved ones, and to attend the numerous memorials held in honor of those taken by this disease.

Advances in anti retro virals makes living with HIV/AIDS less of the harrowing experience it once was. However, their is still much to do in dismanteling the accompanying social stigma that comes with it. By educating yourself and those around you, we can stop the progress of this disease and the long upheld stereotypes that come with it.

HIV/AIDS sees no gender, sexual orientation, class, etc. Key to halting its progress is HIV/AIDS prevention, education, and knowing your status.

Currently, there are 33.4 million people living with HIV worldwide. 31.3 million are adults and 2.1 million are children under 15. In every region of the world, HIV infection is on the rise.

Stats from UNAIDS

Getting tested is easy and 100% confidential. There are countless resources you can use to find testing sites today. Check out this site if you want to know more: HIVTest.Org

Media courtesy of: World AIDS Campaign

If you are on Twitter, I’m sure you have seen tweets by your peeps that are calling you to action to get tested, make donations, or attend memorials tonight. You can check out the flurry of activity with the following hash tags: #WAD2010 and #WorldAIDSDay.

Supporting those affected by this disease has never been easier. You can show your support today by wearing red, placing a red ribbon on any of your social media avatars, and by donating to various HIV/AIDS related charities.

I had a red shirt but Moo, my handsome pup, ate it 🙁 All I have is this:

Yes, I take photos in the bathroom at work.

Even some of your favorite celebs have taken to raising awareness by partaking “Celebrity Digital Death,” as the ever amazing OunceOfWentz wrote about.

If you want to donate to an HIV/AIDS charity, check out my AIDS Life Cycle page. I will once again be riding my bike some 500+ miles through California to raise awareness and funds for HIV/AIDS prevention, care, and education. If you can’t donate, leave a message of support or pass along the link to someone that might be able to donate. 😀

To attend a memorial to remember those lost to this pandemic, do a search on the web. There are countless memorials being held everywhere.

There is still a long to way to go in eradicating this disease but with education, prevention, and understanding, we are well on our way to making this a thing of our past.