World AIDS Day 2023
World AIDS Day is a globally commemorated healthcare event observed every year on the 1st of December for the past 33 years (since 1988). On this World AIDS Day Event 2023, various awareness campaigns and activities that promote disease awareness are conducted by several organizations across the world, unite to show solidarity for people living with HIV (human immunodeficiency virus), reminisce about those who have died from an AIDS-related disease, and rally against the spread of the virus. The activities mainly focused on raising awareness about the status of the pandemic and encouraging progress in HIV / AIDS (acquired immunodeficiency syndrome) prevention, treatment, and care around the world.
Around the world, 9.2 million people living with HIV do not have access to life-saving antiretroviral therapy. Every minute, a life is lost to AIDS. This is not fate. We can change it. Indeed, we can end AIDS as a public health threat by 2030 by unleashing the full potential of community leadership.
Communities play a critical role in connecting people with HIV services and in reaching key populations most affected by HIV with health, HIV and support services. The innovation and determination of communities improve access to and quality of services. Communities have built an inspirational movement for change. Communities are the extraordinary ordinary heroes of the AIDS response.
Slogan For World AIDS Day 2023
This year 2023, the World AIDS Day Theme is “LET COMMUNITIES LEAD!”. The theme emphasizes the influence of communities on the HIV response and global health.
Year by year theme of World AIDS Day –
- World AIDS Day 2022 Theme: Equalize
- World AIDS day 2021 Theme: End inequalities. End AIDS. End pandemics.
- World AIDS day 2020 Theme: Global solidarity, shared responsibility
- World AIDS day 2019 Theme: Communities make the difference
- World AIDS day 2018 Theme: Know Your Status
- World AIDS day 2017 Theme: My health, my right
- World AIDS day 2023 Theme: Let Communities Lead
On World AIDS Day 2023, We will tell you Little History about AIDS.
Who Was the First HIV Positive Person?
HIV broke into the public imagination in the early 1980s after a cluster of young gay men in San Francisco, LA, and New York City developed unexplainable cases of skin cancer and pneumonia. At first glance, doctors suspected these men were abusing party drugs, but they quickly became aware of a much more worrying prospect: a transmittable virus.
The virus didn’t even have a name yet, but slowly mounting concern from the public was pushing scientists to figure out where this emerging illness was heading. To do so, they first wanted to work out where, or who, it came from.
In 1981, investigators from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) interviewed many of the young men living in the Los Angeles. When asked about their sexual history, one name repeatedly popped up: Gaëtan Dugas.
During his regular travels as a flight attendant in the 1970s and early 1980s, this sexually voracious Canadian man was believed to have slept with thousands of men, potentially spreading the virus to hundreds of people across North America and the wider world.
His face and the tagline “PATIENT ZERO” were later splashed across the world.
When it comes in India & Who discover first Case?
It was at the end of 1985 and the 32-year-old microbiology student at the medical college in Chennai (Madras), was looking for a topic for her dissertation.
The idea came from her professor and mentor, Suniti Solomon. Formal tracking of Aids cases had begun in the United States in 1982 and the medical authorities in India didn’t want to be caught napping if the disease reached India.
The city of Chennai and the surrounding Tamil Nadu region were considered especially traditional societies. Hundreds of samples, collected from the supposedly more promiscuous city of Mumbai, had already been tested at the virology institute in the western city of Pune and no positive results had turned up so far.
So, it was not surprising that Nirmala was reluctant. “I told Dr Solomon I was pretty sure the result would be negative,” she says.
It was decided that Nirmala would collect 200 blood samples from high-risk groups like sex workers, gay men and African students, but this was not an easy job – Nirmala had previously worked on leptospirosis, a bacterial disease transmitted from dogs and rodents, and she knew nothing about HIV or Aids.
Over three months, she gathered more than 80 samples. She had no gloves, no safety equipment. And the sex workers had no idea what they were being tested for. They collected samples from the six women again. Simoes flew with the samples to the US where a Western Blot test confirmed that the deadly HIV virus had indeed arrived in India.
For years, it was believed that India had the highest number of infected people in the world with 5.2 million infections but even today, more than 2.1 million infected people live in India and the deadly disease, which still has no cure, remains a killer.
10 Tips to help lower your risk of AIDS:
1. Practice safe sex by using condoms consistently and correctly during every sexual encounter.
2. Get tested for HIV regularly, especially particularly if you engage in high-risk behavior or have multiple partners.
3. Limit the number of sexual partners and choose partners who have also been tested for HIV.
4. Avoid sharing needles or any other drug paraphernalia, as this can transmit HIV.
5. Consider pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) if you are at high risk of contracting HIV. PrEP is a daily medication that can significantly reduce the risk of HIV transmission.
6. If you are HIV-positive, consistently take antiretroviral therapy (ART) as prescribed by your healthcare provider to lower your viral & decrease the risk of transmitting the virus.
7. Educate yourself about HIV/AIDS and stay informed about the latest prevention strategies and treatments.
8. If you are pregnant and HIV-positive, seek prenatal care and take appropriate medications to prevent transmitting the virus to your baby.
9. Engage in open and honest communication with your sexual partners about sexual history, HIV status, and prevention strategies.
10. Support and promote initiatives that aim to reduce the stigma surrounding HIV/AIDS, as this can help increase awareness and encourage broader prevention efforts.
Conclusion:
The evidence synthesized in this report demonstrates that the world cannot end AIDS as a public health threat without supporting communities in their leadership roles. Communities have long made and continue to make decisive contributions in driving progress to reduce numbers of new HIV infections and AIDS-related deaths, and to protect and promote the rights of all people living with or affected by HIV. The historic achievements the world has made in the HIV response have been possible only because of visionary, courageous leadership and action by communities.
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I never know about this day.nice blog.