White House observes AIDS Awareness Day

[Luddly Neddite]

World AIDS Day

According to a new report by the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV and AIDS, or UNAIDS, almost 63 million people have been infected with the HIV since 1981. And at the end of 2009, some 33.3 million people were living with HIV, including 2.5 million children.

"World AIDS Day is both a day of remembrance and a day of celebration," said U.S. Global AIDS Coordinator, Ambassador Eric Goosby. "We must all keep in our thoughts those who have lost their lives to AIDS. It’s in their honor that we work every day to provide HIV prevention, treatment and care to millions across the globe.

"Yet, it’s also a day to celebrate those whose lives have been improved and saved thanks to global efforts to fight this devastating disease," said Dr. Goosby.

"Globally, about 5.2 million people in low- and middle-income countries were on HIV treatment at the end of 2009. The United States’ President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief—or PEPFAR as it is commonly known—was a major contributor to the increase.

 

[waltky]

Started back in the 1920's...

HIV/AIDS Origins Traced to Kinshasa
October 03, 2014 ~ A new study finds that HIV/AIDS originated in the 1920s in the central African city of Kinshasa, in what is now the Democratic Republic of Congo.

Researchers say "a perfect storm" of factors "primed the HIV pandemic," including rail and river transport in 1960s Congo, a booming sex trade and the use of unsterilized needles in health clinics. The international research team traced HIV's genetic history using archived samples of the virus's genetic code.

An AIDS patient in Kinshasa.

HIV was first recognized in the 1980s. Worldwide, some 75 million people have been infected with it. Around 36 million of them have died. HIV gets its letters from its official name, human immunodeficiency virus, a mutation of simian immunodeficiency virus, which is found in chimpanzees. The researchers believe the virus first jumped to humans through infected blood from bush meat.

From there, the virus spread to areas of Africa beyond Kinshasa, and eventually to the world. The report establishes that more than one million people were using Kinshasa's Belgium-backed railways by the end of 1940, contributing to the disease's spread. At that time, Kinshasa was part of the Belgian Congo.

HIV AIDS Origins Traced to Kinshasa

 

[HenryBHough]

Takes me back to the days when measles was going strong.

Houses turned up with RED quarantine warnings nailed to the doors so people who wanted to avoid infection would not enter.

Now, with liberalism run wild in American schools, it's unreasonable to expect anyone under about 26 to be able to read with sufficient comprehension to understand such a sign.

So these days we just post symbols. BIG RED symbols. Gee, I wonder who in The (former) White House has come down with AIDS!

 

[Mad Scientist]

AIDS awareness? Who the f*ck doesn't know about AIDS?