Every year, World AIDS Day uses a certain theme that can help with fundraising and awareness purposes. It is chosen by going through with the UNAIDS, WHO and many grassroots, along with international agencies and national agencies that are devoted to prevent and fight against HIV and AIDS. Each year a theme is chosen by the Global Steering Committee of the World AIDS Campaign (also known as WAC) ever since 2008.
From the span of 2005 to 2010, the World AIDS Day theme was called “stp AIDS. Keep the Promise.” That campaign was created to encourage political leaders to keep their promise, as said in the slogan, and to achieve access universally to prevention for HIV and AIDS. Including treatments for those suffering through the virus, care, and support by that promise all by the year 2010. From the year 2012 , the theme was the well known “Getting to Zero: Zero New HIV infections. Zero deaths from AIDS-related illness. Zero discrimination.” These are all issues that are faced when one has AIDS, and the theme for 2012-2014 was designed for those to acknowledge we will not condone for any discrimination, Zero discrimination. The theme for 2014 became “Focus, Partner, Achieve: An AIDS-Free Generation.” In the hopes one day there will be no more people suffering and in pain from the AIDS virus. The theme that are chosen for each year don’t just apply to December 1st, World AIDS Day, but instead apply to that entire year until the next December 1st. The slogans and themes are used year round to raise awareness, help those suffering and in need of help, and for fundraising for scientific advances in finding a cure or halt to this treacherous virus.
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The one day every year that raises the most awareness for AIDS and HIV is World AIDS Day. World AIDS Day began in 1988, and has happened every year since, every December 1st. It in fact was the first global health day in world history. This day is a great opportunity for individuals all around the earth to partake and come together to unite against AIDS and HIV and help those suffering from the fight against it.
Many people fail to realize it, but there are about 36.7 million people living with AIDS and over 100,000 of those people actually live in the United Kingdom for scale. Even though the virus was founded and identified in 1984, over 35 million people had died from this virus which makes it the most dangerous and disastrous pandemics in history in the world. Thankfully today, we live in a much more modern world where, even though there is still a demand and need for higher awareness, fundraising, and money for scientific studies in HIV and AIDS, scientists today have made advancements in treatments to HIV and there are even laws now that protect those fighting against the virus themselves. However, many people in the world still have yet to know about AIDS, which is why it is important for the ord about AIDS to get out. World AIDS Day is very important because it reminds us to band with our brothers and sisters with AIDS And remind them that they are not alone in this fight. This day also reminds the public eye and governments of all countries that HIV and AIDS is still a very prominent thing happening in today’s culture and we must not keep a blind eye to it. We need to embrace it and put everything we can into ending this virus once and for all. The AFC is the Aids Foundation of Chicago, Illinois. Their mission statement from their website: "The AIDS Foundation of Chicago mobilizes communities to create equity and justice for people living with and vulnerable to HIV and related chronic diseases" Their vision statement states: "People living with HIV and related chronic diseases will thrive, and new HIV infections will be rare"
The AIDS Foundation of Chicago has a foundation of values shared with the many people of the Chicago area. They believe to keep commitment to their mission, to respect others and their own dignity and worth, going against social injustices, and they make sure to always keep respect for different ethnicities, diversity, honesty, integrity, and respect for overall everyone, including employees and those with AIDS. All of these values that the AIDS Foundation of Chicago stand by, apply to their Code of Ethics. The AFC's prevention statement: "The AIDS Foundation of Chicago (AFC) leads a comprehensive campaign to test more than 8,000 individuals each year for HIV, link HIV-positive individuals to care, provide state-of-the-art HIV prevention barriers to those who need it most and advocate for statewide and international support for groundbreaking, new prevention methods." which means their campaign goal is to test over 8,000 people each year to catch HIV from its starting point, and finding it at the earlier rather than later. The AIDS Foundation of Chicago also has various events throughout the year raising awareness and money for people with HIV and AIDS. These events are either fundraisers, or communities raising awareness. Events include fundraising dinners, auctions, and walks. All of these events add up helping raise money for those to life a happy AIDS free life, and for those with AIDS, to feel not alone. 1. Magic Johnson- Johnson is a retired American professional basketball player and is currently the president of basketball operations of the Los Angeles Lakers of the NBA. On the court, Johnson played point guard for the Lakers for 13 seasons. He was tested with a physical, and the results were that he had HIV. Magic Johnson tested positive for HIV is 1991. On November 7, 1991, he officially announced that he was going be retiring due to his condition.
2. Charlie Sheen is a well known actor, starring in movies such as Ferris Bueller's Day Off, Two and a Half Men, and The Arrival. Charlie Sheen told Matt Lauer on NBC, "I'm here to admit that I am in fact HIV-positive," "And I have to put a stop to this onslaught, this barrage of attacks and of sub-truths and very harmful and mercurial stories that are about the [alleged] threatening the health of so many others, which couldn't be farther from the truth." 4. Liberace- is an American pianist, actor and singer. Liberace was known for having careless sex with many people, and he knowingly infected his young lovers with AIDS and he even infected his live-in love of five years, Scott Thorson, and he claims that at least three of Liberace's died from the disease. 5. Freddie Mercury- was a British singer, songwriter and record producer, Mercury was known as the lead vocalist of the rock band Queen. Freddie Mercury could still be alive today if HIV drugs had been available few months sooner, which for many fans of his, like myself, is a painful thing to imagine. Mercury had lost most of his foot from the HIV condition. The Broadway Cares/Equity Cares about AIDS mission statement reads:
"To mobilize the unique abilities within the entertainment industry to mitigate the suffering of individuals affected by HIV/AIDS; To ensure direct support specifically through the social services and programs of The Actors Fund to all individuals in the entertainment industry affected by critical health issues, including but not limited to HIV/AIDS; To support organizations across the country which provide treatment or services for people specifically affected by HIV/AIDS and their families; To promote and encourage public support for national and international programs and services which benefit people with HIV/AIDS; To increase public awareness and understanding of HIV/AIDS through the creation and dissemination of educational materials; To support efforts by the entertainment industry to address other critical health issues or respond to an emergency, in each case as approved by the Board of Trustees; To support efforts by the entertainment industry in other charitable or educational endeavors, in each case as approved by the Board of Trustees." (https://broadwaycares.org/mission-statement/) The BCEFA is the Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS. This administration helps women, men, and children all over the country receive health care, receive medications that could save their life, get them nutritious meals, counseling, and even financial assistance for emergencies. BCEFA is one of the largest leading non-profit industry that fundraiser and makes grants for those with AIDS all across America.
By using the talents generosity, and resources of the American Theatre Community, ever since 1988, the BCEFA has raised more than $285 million for essential services for people with AIDS. Equity Fights AIDS was founded by the Council of Actors Equity Association in October 1987. Money was raised through the amazing efforts of the Equity Theatre companies across the country. This money was specifically earmarked for The Actors Fund’s HIV/AIDS Initiative. At the end of Broadway shows, usually more common for Broadway Tours, once all of the actors have taken their final bow an actor from the company (usually if there is a child in the company they will have them make the announcement because children melt people's hearts) will make an announcement about the BCEFA and what it does. The actors then take red buckets out to the hallways and lobbies outside the theatre and anyone can put in money, no donation is too small or too big, they always say. With the actors being in the lobby, they ask for if you want a picture or a selfie you must give a donation of at least 10 dollars, or else it will only become about the actors and getting pictures and not about giving money. With all of the shows I have been to I have donated at least 25 dollars at the shows alone. It is a great way to meet some of the cast members while showing your support and care. Over the shows I have seen I have met Karen Olivo, who played Angelica Schuyler in Hamilton in Chicago, I have met Christine Dwyer, who played Sylvia in the national tour of Finding Neverland, Rob Colletti who played Dewey Finn in the national tour of School of Rock, and muliple different members of companies that include South Pacific, Wicked, Phantom of the Opera, and even A Chorus Line, to name a few. The outlook for people living with HIV has greatly improved over the past two decades. Many people who are HIV-positive can now live longer than before, and live healthier lives when they’re in routine care.
U.S. Kaiser Permanente researchers found that the regular life expectancy for people living with HIV and receiving treatment has increased and gone up significantly ever since 1996. This is because of the new antiretroviral drugs which were developed and added to the already existing antiretroviral therapy. This drug resulted in a highly effective HIV treatment regimen. In 1996, the total life expectancy for an infected 20-year-old person was only 39 years. In 2011, the total life expectancy bumped up to about 70 years. That is a 31 year difference of a happy full life. Someone who is HIV-positive, receiving treatment, and who is in optimal health (meaning they do not do or take drugs and are free of other infections) may live to be in their late 70s. The survival rate for people who live with HIV/AIDS has also dramatically improved since the first days of the entire HIV/AIDS epidemic. Researchers in a study in 2013, found that 78 percent of people with HIV had deaths between 1988 and 1995 were due to AIDS. Between 2005 and 2009, that figure dropped greatly to 15 percent. A person living with HIV who isn’t on treatment is still more likely to develop AIDS and experience an early death. In the future we can only hope there will be more money donated towards the research for an AIDS/HIV to finally find a cure. It began with scientists. Scientists identified a certain type of chimpanzee in West Africa as the main source of the HIV/AIDS infection in humans. The scientists believes that the chimpanzee version of the immunodeficiency virus most likely was transmitted to humans and it mutated into HIV/AIDS when we humans hunted down these chimpanzees for their meat and came into contact with their infected blood. The virus slowly spread across Africa, over decades, and it later came into other parts of the world.
The earliest known case of an infection with HIV-1 virus in a human was found in a 1959 blood sample collected from a man in Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of the Congo. (It is unknown still how he became infected.) Genetic analysis of this blood sample rose the suggestion that HIV-1 may have stemmed from a single virus in the late 1940s or the early 1950s. We know that the virus has existed in the United States alone since the mid to late 1970s. From 1979–1981 rare types of cancer, pneumonia, and various other illnesses were reported by doctors in New Yokr and Los Angeles among a number of male patients who had sex with other men. These conditions were not usually found in people with healthy immune systems. In 1982 public health officials began to use the term "acquired immunodeficiency syndrome," or AIDS, to describe the many occurrences of infections. Formal tracking of AIDS cases began that year in the United States of America. In 1983, scientists discovered the virus that causes AIDS. This certain virus was first named HTLV-III/LAV, which means human T-cell lymphotropic virus-type and III/lymphadenopathy-associated virus, by an international scientific committee. This name was later changed to HIV. For very many years scientists theorized the origins of HIV and how it appeared in the human population. Most believed that HIV was originated in other primates. Then suddenly in 1999, an international team of researchers had reported that they found the origins of HIV-1, the strain of HIV in the developed world. A subspecies of chimpanzees that were native to west equatorial Africa, had been identified as the real original source of the virus. The researchers confirmed the belief that HIV-1 was introduced into the human population when hunters became exposed to infected blood of primates. Aids is actually not a virus but a set of symptoms by the cause of the HIV virus. AIDS stands for acquired immune deficiency syndrome. It is also referred to as the advanced HIV infection or the late-stage HIV. AIDS is a set of symptoms and illnesses that develop as a result of advanced HIV infection which has destroyed the immune system.
But what is HIV? HIV is a virus that attacks the body's immune system, technically and more specifically the CD4 cells, also known as, T cells. T cells help the immune system fight off infections. If the virus is untreated, HIV will reduce the number of T cells in the body, which will make the person more likely to get even more infections and diseases. In 1983, different scientists discovered the virus that causes AIDS. The virus was at first named HTLV-III/LAV, which means human T-cell lymphotropic virus-type III/lymphadenopathy-associated virus, by an international scientific committee. This name was later changed to HIV Human Immunodeficiency Virus. Theses infections and/or cancers will take advantage of a very weak immune system signals that the person has AIDS, which is the last stage of the HIV infection. Within a few weeks of HIV infection, different symptoms that are flu-like, such as fever, sore throat, and fatigue can occur. When that happens, then the disease is usually asymptomatic until it progresses to AIDS. AIDS symptoms also include weight loss, fatigue, fever or night sweats, and recurrent infections. HIV can be spread in different types of ways. The main way is through sexual contact between two people. It can be spread through any type of unprotected sex, for example, oral, vaginal, and anal. Once any fluid from one infected person is in the system of the other person, the other person most likely will become infected also. Everyone with unprotected sex has a risk of obtaining HIV, but people who also have STD are at an even higher risk.
HIV can be spread from a girl to guy, a guy to girl, girl to girl, or guy to guy. So no matter who you are with, or what your sexuality may be anyone can become affected if they have unprotected sex with an infected person with AIDS. Many people associate AIDS with gay men or lesbians, but it is always highly likely with anyone and you must be careful. The other main reason someone can attain AIDS and HIV is sharing needles to inject drugs or Steroids. Sharing needles for tattoos, piercings, and body art can also lead to infection. Whenever someone with HIV and AIDS shares a needle with someone else, the blood will infect the other person if not sterilized. The virus lives in tiny amounts of the blood attached to the needle. Sharing needles can also pass hepatitis and other infections to that other person. Anyone and everyone can get AIDS. People will say its a joke and only homosexuals get it, or whores and prostitutes are the only exception. But anyone can get it if you are not careful and you don't protect yourself from sexual activity. People have even gotten AIDS from rape and they live with being a rape victim and having AIDS. |