Thursday, November 20, 2008

Another Wake Up Call


By Steve Villano

World AIDS Day is less than two weeks away – December 1, 2008 – I think it’s a great time to review where we stand in the fight against the disease and remind everyone that we can do something about these terrible truths:

- There’s still no cure, in fact, two important vaccine trials were abandoned in 2008.

- The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) were wrong about how many new HIV/AIDS infections are happening each year – by 40%!

- African Americans account for 55% of deaths due to AIDS.

- Hispanics account for 14% of the U.S. population yet account for over 20% of new HIV/AIDS cases.

- Women account for nearly 1/3 of all new HIV infections – most of those infected are through heterosexual contact.

- Teen girls, ages 13-19 represented 43% of aids cases among young people.

- World-wide young people represent HALF of all new HIV infections.

It’s also a fact that HIV/AIDS is 100% preventable; it’s just a matter of getting the word out! So for this World AIDS Day, if you’re too shy to talk to your friends about HIV/AIDS, tell them to turn on the TV where, thanks to the cable industry, they’ll see our PSAs and learn more on our Video-on-Demand (VOD) service, or tell them to visit our newly redesigned web site, cablepositive.org, where they can connect with other people in the fight to end AIDS.

We have work to do and we know it, do you?


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