The provincial health department spokesman, Steve Mabona, said this drive was part of a build-up to World Aids Day festivities, which will be commemorated on the 1st December in the City of Tshwane.
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Tuesday leaders and activists observed World AIDS Day, which honors those who die from the disease, and raises awareness for efforts that fight the virus, which experts say has been falling off of the public’s radar since treatment options have been developed.
World AIDS Day was first recognized in 1988.
New Yorker Joseph Sellman said he was devastating when he was diagnosed in 1984 with HIV. However, those affected are living longer and Kloeckl said HIV and AIDS has become a forgotten disease.
For his part, Lewis will visit the Infectious Disease Program of the Grady Health System to highlight the need for HIV/AIDS testing and treatment.
“The fortunate thing is with our medications, we can now actually restore them to good health. There are 174 men and 30 women among these 204 individuals this year, which means the trend of the number of newly-registered men being nearly five times higher than the number of women is preserved”, the medic pointed out.
The World Health Organization estimates that over 35 million people worldwide are living with HIV/AIDS.
He said interventions such as prevention-of-mother-to-child-transmission of HIV should fully be implemented to ensure that no child born to an HIV positive mother gets infected.
Fiza Irfan of the Lansing Area AIDS Network explained, “Socially it’s still hard to live with the disease just because a lot of people are not educated about it. people do not know that it’s very treatable”.
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AIDS is not a death sentence.
