Student Union Campaigns:12 Days of Christmas…Staying Safe Day 1: World AIDS Day
Published on 01.12.15
On the 1st of December it is World AIDS Day. This day gives everyone in the world a chance to unite in the fight against HIV and AIDS, and gives people the opportunity to support people living with HIV and commemorate people who have passed away. You may not know that over 100,000 people are
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On the 1st of December it is World AIDS Day. This day gives everyone in the world a chance to unite in the fight against HIV and AIDS, and gives people the opportunity to support people living with HIV and commemorate people who have passed away.
You may not know that over 100,000 people are living with HIV in the UK, and around 34 million people in the world have HIV or AIDS.
Every year in the UK around 6000 people are diagnosed with HIV. It seems people just don’t know how to protect themselves, or where to go to get information, this ends up leaving people living with the condition being discriminated against, and people around them not being informed properly about the disease.
HIV stands for ‘Human Immunodeficiency Virus’, which refers to how the virus weakens a person’s immune system, which is the part of the body that fights off disease. The symptoms for this disease include body rash, sore throat, or fevers.
AIDS stands for ‘Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome’. This means a collection of illnesses caused by the virus people pick up that makes their immune system weak, but you cannot get an AIDS diagnosis unless you already have HIV.
World AIDS Day is so important because it puts this cause back into government and public conscience. It is vital that we keep on raising money for research, and to increase awareness, which will fight against the prejudice and improve people’s education.
Hereford College of Arts Student Union is fully supporting this worthy cause. We have donation buckets placed around Folly Lane and College Road campus, as well as a few red ribbons which will help to show your support. For more information and online advice please visit the Terrence Higgins Trust website, or check out the #WorldAIDSDay hashtag on Twitter.
