AIDS Awareness Education and HIV prevention

Written by Carol Dickens

AIDS Prevention Through Education The most important thing anyone can do about the AIDS and HIV epidemic is to educate themselves and others.  Education is helpful because it can dispel a lot of the myths that hold people back.  In the beginning of the AIDS crisis, people have all sorts of negative preconceived notions about the disease.  This held research back.  People who had AIDS or HIV were often feared and ostracized for no really good reason.  Over the years though, this has slowly changed.  With more education and awareness about these illnesses, the better the research and human aspect of it has become.   AIDS information comes in many topics, each with their own goal.  For instance, you need to know how the illnesses are contracted.  This will help with prevention.  If more and more people know how to avoid AIDS and HIV, then it will slow down the spread of disease.  For instance, you may not know that you can only get this illness by coming into contact with the bodily fluids of someone that has it.  Because of this, the most common ways to contract the illness is through sex and the sharing of needles.  To protect yourself, you should avoid using a needle after it has already been used by someone else.  You should also protect yourself while having sex.  Condoms are the most common way to do so.  They act as a barrier between you and the person you're with.  There is a very small chance that you will contract AIDS or HIV if you use a condom properly. You should know that America isn't the only country affected by AIDS.  Nearly every nation in the world has seen death from this illness.  It is a widespread epidemic.  With the help of education and AIDS information, we can hope that this epidemic subsides.  A good example of the importance of education is the situation in Africa.  This is where the illness is most widespread and dense.  The biggest reason for this is the lack of education in this area.  People don't know how to prevent getting sick.  Because of this, there are children being born with AIDS all the time in Africa.  There are groups of people working tirelessly to let African people know about the risks.  They also help provide them with medicine and other helpful things.   If you can, you should try to donate your time or money to the cause.  Every little bit helps.  They need people for all sorts of tasks.  They need doctors who can go to Africa to help people who are sick.  They also need money to help buy food for people there as well.  If Africans get a lot of education about the virus, there will be a lot less people who get sick with it.  This is the main goal of organizations who are working with people in this continent.   Since there is no cure for AIDS or HIV, the biggest weapon in scientists' arsenal right now is education and information.  They figure that the more they tell people about the disease and inform them of how to avoid getting it, the less people will actually contract the disease.  Since this illness is so widespread, though, it will be nearly impossible to eliminate it completely with this method.  In the meantime, other scientists and doctors are working to help find a cure.  Once they do, this epidemic will be pretty much over.  If you donate money to the cause, there is a good chance that those funds will go toward helping find a cure.  You can be confident that you are helping a very worthy cause.

 

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