The World Health Organization has a theme for today:

Getting to zero: Zero new HIV infections. Zero discrimination. Zero AIDS-related deaths

Adapted from World AIDS day poster designed by: Patrick Ismael liewa, age 20, Kenya

HIV / AIDS is one of the world’s most significant public health challenges, particularly in countries with lower incomes.

From: aids.gov

AIDS/HIV is an illness that has faced (and still faces) a huge stigma in our society. When I consider The WHO’s mission for today at the top of this post, there is only one aspect that is immediately changeable:

Zero new HIV infections. ZERO DISCRIMINATION. Zero AIDS-related deaths. 

That mission sandwiched in the middle simply requires people to put aside prejudices and change the way they think and act. OK, that is a monumental task sometimes … but knowledge and awareness are still the best tools for addressing and decreasing age old stigmas and moving forward.

So much progress has been made in the treatment and prevention. How much do you really know about the disease? How would you react if you found out that one of your patients had HIV/AIDS?

Get your knowledge on!

Explore these sites and talk about what you learned with just one person today and demonstrate international solidarity by being part of the global solution.

• Take this short quiz to see if you are HIV Aware

• The World Health Organization has complied 10 basic facts about HIV/AIDS: 10 FACTS.  
• A timeline of AIDS, see how the epidemic began in illness, fear, and death in the 1980s and has progressed to the treatable condition we face today.