Or that December 1st is is World AIDS Day? If you are young, if you are female, if you are African-American or Latina, you should know. Hell, if you live in this world you should know. But African-American and Latina females between the ages of 18 and 24 account for over two-thirds of new HIV/AIDS cases every year, and this frightening statistic shows the heaviest weight on members of our population that we tend to marginalize and forget.
Planned Parenthood of Middle and Eastern Tennessee has teamed up with a HIV Vaccine Trials Unit at Vanderbilt University (what, two entities in the South?!) to work toward an HIV vaccine. These two groups are working on vaccine research and development that President Bill Clinton expressed as an urgent need in these United States and the world. That was in 1997, and ten years later we are still stalemated in the fight against an always-fatal, constantly mutating virus. HIV/AIDS research needs to become a major health issue that is governmentally funded and prioritized above the killing and war that we engage ourselves in. The fight for our lives is not on a battlefield in the Middle East or the cliffs of Afghanistan; it's on our streets and among our children.
Today is the ninth annual HIV Vaccine Awareness Day. The organizers of HVAD ask people to recognize the day by wearing a red AIDS ribbon upside down, creating a 'v' for 'vaccine.'
HIV Vaccine: A Shot of Hope
HIV Vaccine Trials Network
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I think the more they promote events like this, the higher the chances of lowering the HIV infected persons are.
I'm young, I'm female, and I don't know what you're talking about.
Then you should educate yourself and protect yourself. No need to get flippant with me because you don't know your basic HIV/AIDS stats.
Or maybe I could just, you know, practice abstinence and don't have to worry about all that.
If that's your choice, then that's your way to stay safe. Not everyone goes that way, and we can't discount them just because of that.