HIV and AIDS

For a child who faces discrimination due to his or her association with HIV and AIDS, the opportunity to play amongst peers is priceless.

For a child grieving the loss of a parent or sibling, the opportunity to escape from it all (even for an afternoon), can be therapeutic and healing.

It’s an interesting thing, because when you spend time out in the field, you never know when you will run across moments-simple and meaningful moments.

That’s what I love about working in the field.

One moment you can feel completely engulfed by the misery of the suffering and the stigma resulting from the AIDS pandemic and yet in the next breath …

Matchmaking services are offered for people living with HIV in India. It makes sense. People who live with the virus support each other.

Higher than West Africa, on par with Uganda and Kenya-HIV and AIDS on the rise in Washington D.C. As the prevalence increases-up 22% since 2006, we should be careful to treat the local epidemic where transmission is actually taking place rather than turn it into an ‘everyone’s at risk’ problem….

The United Nations AIDS division has released a report on the global AIDS epidemic for the year 2008. Every two years UNAIDS publishes a new “Report on the global AIDS epidemic”. In terms of data, this source can give you most of the HIV and AIDS statistics that are being measured including the estimated number of people living with HIV, adult prevalence and AIDS deaths by country and year since 1990. It is possible to see where strides have been made in the last 20 years, and also how the epidemic is changing.

Here is a video from TED about that shows AIDS pictures from Zimbabwe, Africa. The presenter, Kristen Ashburn, took the photos herself on a trip to the country. These AIDS pictures really show the human impact AIDS has. Can’t you just feel the emotion in her voice?

At a meeting of World Concern HIV/AIDS field staff, the question came up of how many of us knew our HIV status (hence this post being about AIDS Awareness). A few hands went up, but not every hand. Leading to the next question, “How can we refer people to voluntary counseling and testing (VCT) centers if we haven’t gone ourselves?”

Follow my journey through Africa as I investigate AIDS and the impact it is having on people there.

AIDS statistics play an important part in understanding what is going on with HIV and AIDS. Read…

HIV prevention needs of people who are HIV positive have been largely ignored. What is being done?

HIV and AIDS is serious business. Get background on why we started this blog and what to expect.