If you would like to be tested for HIV or AIDS, testing is free at the Kern County Department of Public Health. The HASA program is now limited to those who have AIDS or symptomatic HIV.
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Furthermore, he said that discrimination and stigma that exist in our healthcare system and society prevent people who are aware of their HIV-status from seeking treatment. “It should just be HIV, because AIDS implies the end stages of it, but HIV disease is just a chronic disease”.
“We’ll have a world aids day choir performing, we’ll have quest speakers, we’ll have a candle lighting ceremony were people can light a candle in honor or in memory of somebody”, said Rodriguez.
People are positive and hopeful that one day the virus will be eradicated with the research and development being made on new treatments.
Twenty-one percent of new HIV infections among adults in Kenya occur among women aged between 15 and 24 years old.
Fortunately, in more than two decades since World Aids Day began-HIV is no longer a death sentence, but more of a chronic illness that can be treated if it’s caught soon enough.
Living with the virus for more than 30 years, St. Julian said his HIV has developed into AIDS.
HIV testing happening at Forsyth Park in Savannah on Tuesday, December 1, 2015-World AIDS day. John barry, executive director of the Southern Tier AIDS Project, says the state’s strategy has three major components: esting anyone and everyone for HIV, getting those who test positive into treatment, and finally, making sure they stay in treatment. “Today, a person diagnosed with HIV at the age of 20, if starts promptly on ART, is expected to live a normal life span, with a highly preserved quality of life”, said Dr Surya Rao speaking on the occasion.
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“Unless we control new HIV infections among this group, our aspirations of becoming a vibrant middle-income economy in the next few years is in jeopardy”, she added. Agency officials state that while we have reduced new infections, future HIV prevention requires constant attention in order to “Get to Zero”.
