BellaOnline Forums Health and Fitness AIDS & HIV

Hi Everyone:

My heart goes out to the children who have contacted aids through no fault of theirs.

Please keep them in your prayers.

Angela

I feel the same way
My daughter got HIV from an unfaithful boyfriend
I also feel bad for women who contact HIV from their unfaithful husbands & boyfriends or guys who have it and don't tell their partners male or female
And goes the same for women who has it and don't tell their partners

Hi Rosie:

I started to do a yearly AIDS test as I felt I owed my now 23 year old daughter that much.

I did skip the last 2 years due to finances but need to get back into doing it.

I did my FIRST test when she was in 3rd grade - it was scary, but I knew that if I had it, I needed to make plans for her with me being a single parent.

God has been good, and up until 2 years ago, my tests have been negative. But it is scary every time as it sometimes takes years before you get symptoms.

Angela

Hi Angela,

Good topic, I used to work for the HIV/AIDS Program and the best way to help is to become more aware of HIV/AIDS. Also,you can help by contacting your local health department and see how you can further help. Keep getting tested and again good topic.

Tuculia Washington
Daughter Editor

Very nice topic to share. All should analyze the drawback of AIDS.

the singer elton john has donated over 30 million pounds to the aids programme to find a cure - lets hope the money is well spent on research and helping those that have aquired this horrible disease.

Sure, May god bless those children.

I think that love would be the bst thing that will do good to the AIDS

[quote=Allornothing]I think that love would be the bst thing that will do good to the AIDS [/quote] Agreed, but I'd add "understanding" to that list. I worked in a free HIV/AIDS clinic in inner city Atlanta for a couple years, and honestly, the most difficult part of living with HIV for our patients was simply the depression and social isolation. So many people afraid to tell their own families for fear of being shunned, or even just treated differently. A lot of education is needed to continue to remind the public that people with HIV/AIDS are not any different from anyone else and deserve the same respect as everyone else.

Yes, I agree. I strongly believe education about sex at home is not sufficient. Parents seem to be scared to talk about this with their children. Becoming aware of this at a young age can definitely lower the rates at which people are infected with the virus.

Education is absolutely the key to fighting this disease. I started being an HIV/AIDS educator in the early 1980's at the beginning of the recognition of the pandemic. I spoke to diverse groups including a lock-in of conservative Christian high school and college students from four churches as well as the youth ministers and adult sponsors. The billed me as an "AIDS Evangelist" and even gave me a plaque stating that. I'd never imagined standing in such a pulpit and talking graphically about sexuality, condoms, and the whole nine yards and halfway expected either a lightning bolt or a lynching by the adults. I had a question and answer period and while there were a couple a silly questions, most were pretty important and I think they learned quite a bit about both preventing exposure and compassion for sufferers. After the kids filed out for pizza, the whole group of adults swarmed me. It turned out that they wanted their own more private question and answer session and many were quite frank about having possibly exposed themselves. I spent another hour and a half with them and later all four churches founded AIDS ministries, formed respite care teams, and one church built an entire subsidized apartment complex for people living with AIDS. My own kids got the facts about sexuality as well as about HIV early on, the talk about their bodies beginning when they could talk in sentences. As a result, they had no STD's and no unwanted pregnancies. My grandkids were born into marriages and desired. I'm watching that education process go on to another generation. I learned from my own girls that the schools do a woeful job of educating kids about sexuality and AIDS and parents are foolish to think the school takes them off of the hook.