AIDS

Raising awareness by educating others

What is HIV?
And where did it come from?
HIV (human immunodeficiency virus)
 It is a virus which attack one’s immune system.
Unless treated, HIV can lead to AIDS or acquired
immunodeficiency syndrome.
 There is no currently known effective cure. Once
one gets HIV, they have it for life.
 Despite that, with the proper medical care, HIV
can be controlled. With an effective HIV
treatment, people who have it can live long and
healthy lives and protect their partner.
 This infection in humans came from a type of
chimpanzee in Central Africa.
 It is believed that the chimpanzee version of the
virus, also know as SIV, was passed to humans
when they hunted them for meat and came into
contact with their infected blood.
 According to some studies HIV may have jumped
to humans as far back as the late 1800s.
 HIV slowly spread across Africa over the decades
and into other parts of the world.
Why HIV/AIDS education?

The three main reasons


So why HIV/AIDS education?
Each year there are more and more new
HIV infections, which shows that people
either aren't learning the message about
the dangers of HIV, or are unable or
unwilling to act on it. Many people are
dangerously ignorant about the virus - a
survey found recently that a third of
teens thought there was a 'cure' for
AIDS. Education is an important
component of preventing the spread of
HIV.
 There are three main reasons for AIDS education
 The first of which is to prevent new infections from taking
place.
 A second reason that AIDS education is needed is to
improve quality of life for HIV positive people.
 Too often, AIDS education is seen as being something which
should be targeted only at people who are not infected with
HIV in order to prevent them from becoming infected.
 The third reason people need AIDS education is to reduce
stigma and discrimination.
 In many countries there is a great deal of fear and
stigmatization of people who are HIV positive. This fear is
too often accompanied by ignorance, resentment and
ultimately, anger. Sometimes the results of prejudice and fear
can be extreme.
Who needs to be educated?
Pretty much everyone really
 It's not only young people, injecting drug
users or gay men who become infected - the
virus has affected a cross-section of society.
This means that education ought to be aimed
at all parts of society, not only those groups
who are seen as being particularly high-risk.
Well… who needs It is all very well to educate young people but
it's usually adults who become infected, and

educating?
in recent years there has been very little AIDS
education targeted at adults. The people who
are most urgently in need of HIV education
are those who think they're not at risk.

Short answer, anyone who is vulnerable to AIDS.
And almost everyone is vulnerable, unless they know how to
protect themselves.
People who have not yet been educated and
may be at risk of becoming infected. This
usually means young people, who need to
know the risks involved in unsafe sex and
drug use before they are old enough to find
out for themselves.
AIDS education is not completely effective

 If AIDS education that had been done up until now had been fully effective, then
there wouldn't have been over five million new infections in 2004.
 It is clear that the campaigns carried out so far have failed to prevent the spread
of the virus, so the message needs to be repeated, in different forms, until people
appreciate it, or until, hopefully, education is no longer needed.