Learning

HIV / AIDS – WHY TWO WORDS FOR THE SAME THING?

There’s a lot of confusion around HIV / AIDS.

And education is one of the most important battles we face.

Many people don’t know what the words mean, or how they affect people and our world today.

Here’s the bottom line:

– It kills around 8000 people every day. It will today.
– It’s the number one cause of death among young women in our world
– It’s is a pandemic – a desease outbreak present over a large area which is actively spreading

And here’s how it all fits together:

HIV = Human Immunodeficiency Virus
AIDS = Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome

The HIV virus is where it starts.

It infects the blood and spreads throughout the body.

How is it passed from one person to another?

Primarily through unprotected sex, contaminated needles
and from child to mother during pregnancy or breast feeding.

The HIV virus brings on AIDS, the disease that is the real killer.

AIDS interferes with the immune system, leaving the body
incredibly vulnerable to ordinary opportunistic infections
that would barely a healthy body could easily fight off.

Since it’s discovery in the 1980s, AIDS has caused around 36 million deaths,
and approximately 35.3 million are living with HIV / AIDS today.

Today there is no vaccine, and there is no cure.

But Antiretroviral Treatment can slow the disease,
leading to a near normal life expectancy – while reducing
the chance of transmission from mother to child, to below 1%.

That’s where Chasing Zero fit in.

Along with education on sexual health, Chasing Zero work to
provide access to life saving treatment, so that mothers
can give birth to healthy babies – and live to watch them grow.

We’re seeing adult’s live, and children born HIV.

But it’s not enough – we need to reach more people.

That’s where you come in.

Please give financial support and offer your time to spread the word to all your friends.

So that we can continue saving lives.

You can be a part of the end of AIDS.