World Aids Day

My aim this year is to end it as a volunteer for Jamaica AIDS Support. JAS is an organization that seeks to educate about the virus and it's transmission and assist with helping people not only learn how to live healthily but also prospering in the face of a positive diagnosis. The fight against this disease continues and we need as many people as possible to educate themselves and others with correct information for us to stop the rate of infection.

'Getting to Zero' is their motto for the 2012 campaign. Their aim this year is for zero new infections, zero AIDS related deaths and zero instances of discrimination. That's definitely a campaign I want to be a part of and hope to do so by the end of this year and continuing forward.

The caribbean is second only to sub-saharan Africa in it's infection rate and women, young women have a higher rate of infection than men. Men and women must learn to use protection in all instances of sexual conduct and get tested themselves as well as their partners to get tested. We need to encourage people to get tested and to remove the stigma getting tested has gained over the years.

There's never any shame or harm in seeking to know the truth.

More than 13,000 people became newly infected in the Caribbean in 2011, bringing the total number of people living with HIV/AIDS there to more than 230,000. AIDS claimed an estimated 10,000 lives in 2011. (http://www.amfar.org/about_hiv_and_aids/facts_and_stats/statistics__worldwide/)

HIV/AIDS Statistics: Caribbean

Adults age 15-49 living with HIV/AIDS - 4,00,000

New HIV infections - 45,000-80,000

Adult HIV prevalence age 15-49 (rate %) - 1.9-3.1

Women age 15-49 living with HIV/AIDS - 210,000

Children (ages 0-14) living with HIV/AIDS - 20,000

Children orphaned by AIDS (ages 0-14) currently living - 2,50,000

AIDS deaths (Adults and Children) - 30,000-50,000

Source: UNAIDS