World Aids Day

World AIDS Day is a global initiative to raise awareness, fight prejudice, and improve education about HIV (human immunodeficiency virus), the virus that causes AIDS (acquired immune deficiency syndrome). World AIDS Day is December 1.

Around the world, about 35 million people are living with HIV. In the United States, about 50,000 people get infected with HIV every year.

It’s important that everyone ages 15 to 65 gets tested for HIV at least once. Some people may need to get tested more often. In the United States, about one in five people who have HIV don’t know it.

Get Tested

How often you need to get tested depends on your risk for HIV infection. Talk to your doctor or nurse about your risk for HIV. Get tested for HIV at least once a year if you:

• Have sex without a condom with someone who may have HIV
• Have sex with men who have sex with men.  If you are a man who has sex with men, you may need to get tested more often, like every three to six months
• Use drugs with needles
• Have a sex partner who has HIV
• Have had a sexually transmitted disease (STD)
• Have sex with more than one partner
• Have sex with people you don’t know
• Have sex for drugs or money

Testing can be done by your primary care provider or at any of our local Federally Qualified Health Centers:

• Erie Evanston/Skokie Health Center - offers onsite and home testing kits for IL residents
• Tapestry 360 - Skokie - offers onsite testing

Transmission

• HIV is passed from one person to another by:
• Having unprotected sex with a person who has HIV
• Sharing needles with someone who has HIV
• Breastfeeding, pregnancy, or childbirth if the mother has HIV
• Getting a transfusion of blood that’s infected with HIV (very rare in the United States)

Learn More

Learn more about HIV/AIDS and how to prevent this disease at the following websites:

• AIDS.gov
• Center for Disease Control