Amongst all of the happy celebrations that occur this time of year like Thanksgiving, St. Nicholas Day's, Christmas, Chanukah, and New Years, there is a more somber day: World AIDS Day. It is observed on December 1st each year and is a day to bring attention to the world AIDS epidemic. 2008 is the 20th anniversary of World AIDS day. Today we had a lecture on HIV and I thought it would be appropriate to give you some interesting facts we learned during our lecture. The information I've provided is directly from my lecture notes.
AIDS: Number Comparisons
- 40 million people infected worldwide; Population of Canada: 30 million
- Over 21 million people have died from AIDS so far; Population of New-York city 21 million
- Over 13 million children, mostly in Africa, have been orphaned because of AIDS; 15 million students are in primary and secondary school in the United States
- About 1/160 people is infected with AIDS worldwide; about 1/520 people has cancer worldwide
- 16,000 people are infected with HIV daily; 11,000 children are born each day in the United States.
In the United States, it is easy to forget about how horrific HIV/AIDS is since we have such amazing medications that are extending the lives of HIV patients (and giving horrific side effects). Nonetheless, AIDS is still a huge problem worldwide, check out these numbers from UNAIDS and the World Health Organization:
Citation for the Red AIDS ribbon image on this blog post.
I think the hardest thing about HIV is that it takes people so long to realize they are infected. The fact it takes YEARS for people to start getting sick makes it very scary. Hopefully more research and awareness will keep HIV fresh in our minds. This is not an illness that should be forgotten.
ReplyDelete