In addition to one of the best online deal seeking days of the year, December 1st is also World Aids Day. Bloggers across the internet united in one cause today, published post after post to remind us of the global epidemic of HIV/Aids. The 80's brought a global awareness to the then-new disease of HIV/Aids. For nearly a decade, public service announcements were everywhere reminding you to practice safe sex and "Just Say No" to drugs (but if you did drugs, do not share needles). I remember lots of those PSA's with new information being released to the public on an almost daily basis. We learned quite a bit about the disease in the 80's. By the 90's, everyone knew precisely how the disease was passed from person to person. We were no longer afraid to stand next to an infected person in the grocery store, shake hands with a coworker, or even handle things someone had previously touched. For the first time in a decade, we could literally breath without fear. Then along came the cocktail which proved miraculous to those already infected. HIV/Aids was no longer viewed as an imminent threat to all of humanity. The focus seemed to switch from HIV/Aids awareness to avoiding unwanted pregnancies & general STD's. Of course there's always been a movement to keep people from turning to drugs but, with each generation a new drug is discovered. IV drugs seem to be "unpopular" with teenagers opting for pills or inhalants. The threat of contracting the HIV/Aids virus no longer appeared to be a great and terrible threat. Now the epidemic is rearing it's head once again. Nearly half of all US's Aid's cases involve young people ages 13-24 with an estimated 1 million people infected in the United States alone and over 33 million infected worldwide. World Aids Day is designed to bring attention back to the prevention of HIV/Aids nationally and globally. Check out the post at Blog Catalog for tons more information, links to other blog articles, and links to other HIV/Aids related information.
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