Check It Out, Wrap It Up

Today is World AIDS Day, everybody (in case you weren't aware already). I'm not gonna preach to you today about not having sex. I can't tell you how to live your life, as long as you're smart about it. Have as much sex as you want, I don't give a hoot, but be careful. Wrap it up. Especially if you already know you're positive for something... If you don't know, GO GET TESTED. If you are sexually active, it's a smart thing to do. You can be as sure as you want that you don't have anything, but you won't know for sure unless you get tested. You'll feel so much better knowing for sure. And if you do test positive for something, it's better to catch it than to let it sit there and get worse. As soon as I find a place to go, I'm going to get tested today. It's FREE guys. And confidential and all of that.

Here's some quick facts about HIV and AIDS:

♥ HIV stands for 'human immunodeficiency virus' and AIDS stands for 'acquired immunodeficiency syndrome'.

♥ HIV isn't only contracted by having sex, although it is probably the most common way to transfer the disease.

♥ Most people with HIV don't even know that they have it, because they don't feel ill right when they get it. However, some people develop some sort of a fever-like illness with fever, rash, joint pains, and enlarged lymph nodes.

♥ Regardless of if they feel sick or not, people infected with HIV are highly infectious during the first six weeks of them being infected.

♥ THE ONLY WAY TO DETERMINE WHETHER HIV IS PRESENT IN A PERSON'S BODY IS BY TESTING FOR HIV ANTIBODIES OR FOR HIV ITSELF.

♥ There are different stages of HIV based on certain signs, symptoms, infections, and cancers. People at the third stage of HIV most likely have AIDS, and people at the fourth definitely do.

♥ AIDS is defined by the occurrence of any of more than 20 infections or cancers associated with the deficiency of the immune system that stem from HIV infection.

♥ AIDS is also defined in the basis of a CD4 positive T cell count of less than 200 per cubed mm of blood. But that's fancy stuff.

♥ The majority of people infected with HIV, if not treated, develop signs of HIV-related illness within 5-10 years. The time between getting infected with HIV and being diagnosed with AIDS can be 10-15 years, if not longer.

♥ There's no cure just yet, but there is treatment that can slow the disease down and make it take longer to develop into AIDS.

♥ You can find more info here:

What It Is

Symptoms

Contracting the Disease

Prevention

Testing and Counseling

BE INFORMED.

KNOW YOUR STATUS.

BE SAFE.

Help fight the war against AIDS.

All information obtained from:

Center for Disease Control and Prevention [www.cdc.gov]

Epigee [www.epigee.org]

UNAIDS [www.unaids.org]

P.S.

Here's a cool little thing some celebrities are doing.