World AIDS Day: Causes, Symptoms, Prevention, Myths and Activities

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World Aids Day, Celebrated on 1st December every year since 1988. The main purpose of celebrating this is to make people aware about AIDS and make the world AIDS free. It is celebrated all over the world. It is one of the biggest diseases of this era, about which it is necessary to Make People Aware.

According to the figures, UNICEF reported that 37.9 million people have fallen prey to HIV and 2.1 million people in India have become victims of HIV AIDS.

Causes & Symptoms of Aids

HIV is a type of virus that causes AIDS.  AIDS is the last stage of infection. There is no permanent cure for HIV, but there are many treatments to enable most people with the virus to live longer and healthier lives. HIV can happen to anyone and it is mainly in the body fluid of the person like –

In blood, semen, vaginal and rectal fluids, breast milk.

Some common causes that can cause HIV

  • By vaginal or anal sex – thus transmission of HIV is the most common type, especially in homosexuals. If many people use the same needle or syringe to take any medicine.
  • Pregnancy – HIV can be transmitted to a child by a woman during a labor pain or at birth, during breastfeeding.
  • Through the blood of a person with HIV, such as through needle stick.

Signs and Symptoms of HIV Aids

Symptoms do not appear for many months in HIV positive people. However, about 80% of people have symptoms of HIV similar to those of normal flu, which begin to appear 2-3 weeks after being infected with the virus like fever, chills, joint pain, muscle aches, sore throat, sweating, enlarged glands, weakness, blisters, etc.

Prevention of Aids

Although there is no vaccine available to prevent HIV, HIV can be avoided by taking some remedies.

Test for HIV: It is most important that you know about yourself and your partner’s HIV status.

Test for STI: If it is a positive test, it should be treated, because having an STI increases the risk of HIV.

Use Safety Guard: Keep in mind that whenever you have vaginal sex, always use condoms.  Because it is very important to keep in mind that the semen itself contains HIV virus and it can be transmitted from one partner to another. Do not have sexual relations with more than one person. Try to have a sexual relationship with the same partner, by doing this you can avoid HIV. If you are pregnant, get medical care right away: If you are HIV positive, you can pass HIV infection to your child.  But if you get treatment during pregnancy, you can protect your child from HIV.

With all these methods, you can protect yourself from becoming HIV positive.

Those who are HIV positive, there are many treatments to enable most people with the virus to live longer and healthier lives. But there are many misconceptions about AIDS in our country even today. One should not misbehave with them and we should keep the environment around them good. One should clear the misconceptions spread among people about AIDS. We should stop the reasons that cause AIDS.

Myths related to AIDS

Myth 1: Living with HIV victim can cause AIDS

Truth: This virus is not spread by air either.  So if HIV sufferers cough, sneeze or spit around you, then you will not get caught by this virus.  Not only this, but the virus is also not spread by touching, hugging and shaking hands.

Myth 2: Mosquito bites spread HIV

Truth: If you are bitten by a mosquito that has bitten an HIV / AIDS sufferer, it does not spread the virus.  Yes, there is a risk of many more diseases from mosquitoes but not HIV.

Myth 3: You can get HIV from anyone

Truth: HIV/AIDS is believed to be spread by anyone.  But the truth is that this virus can only be spread from HIV positive person to others.  HIV is transmitted through unsafe sex, used syringes, transfusions of HIV-infected blood, or organ transplants.  Not only this, if the mother is suffering from this virus during pregnancy, the child can also become HIV positive. It is very important for people to be aware of HIV AIDS to eliminate all these misconceptions.  To end all these misconceptions, World Aids Day is celebrated on December 1 to make people more and more aware. It is celebrated every year through a theme to make people more aware and to tell them about AIDS. Like last year was the theme of “Know Your Status”

Theme of 2019

Similarly, a theme has been laid to celebrate this year that is “Communities make the Difference”

The main purpose of celebrating this day is to save people from this disease and to improve the environment around those who are suffering with this disease. By the way, World Aids Day is celebrated every year in which rallies are taken out and functions are organized. But its meaning will come out only when people start understanding about it.

What Can be done?

We can celebrate Aids Day by doing many activities. AIDS Day symbol is Red Ribbon and it shows awareness about AIDS. Many people also wear red colored shirts to show awareness on AIDS Day.

There are many activities we can do to prevent HIV AIDS; like we can also make people aware of HIV AIDS by taking out rallies and distributing red ribbons. There are many misconceptions related to HIV AIDS among the people of the village. To eliminate that, we should form a team and go door-to-door giving complete information about this disease to the people.

We can also do street plays in school, colleges and tell people about its causes and cure through video screenings. We can also take help of social media to prevent HIV AIDS like Facebook Twitter and other social platforms; we can make awareness by putting photos videos. We can explain to youth on how HIV AIDS can be prevented.

According to a UN report, those who have homosexual relationships are at higher risk of HIV than others. Those taking drugs also have more risk than normal people. So we and the government should aware such people. And the government should make rules to stop all this.

Due to discrimination against such victims and treating them as stigma, the constraints on its treatment and sex education should be improved. Member states should be directed to increase prevention and Control Measures for HIV AIDS globally.