The HIV Vaccine
By Abbie, Member of the High School Organizing Team
How much do you really know about the HIV Vaccine?
Have you taken the time to research the increasing rates of infections of HIV/AIDS? Over 40 million people are living with HIV/AIDS; 14,000 people contract new infections and 8,000 people die everyday. We need to fund the research of an HIV vaccine.
The importance in having HIV Vaccine Awareness Day is to educate our communities about the infections and diseases that people are living with right now and how badly we need to prevent the continuing spread of the HIV/AIDS pandemic. This day is also to give appreciation to all the people who have been working so very hard on the vaccine, from scientists to doctors and to each and every volunteer that has joined the HIV Vaccine Trials.
A friend of my family was a very early victim of a case of full blown AIDS. He was a hemophiliac, a person that has clotted blood. In a typical situation, a hemophiliac could get a cut or scratch and their body would have difficulty to stop bleeding; if you have a wound, there’s an increased chance that you could bleed to death. Because of this, our family friend needed to have frequent blood transfusions. This was in 1984, right when everyone was just starting to learn about HIV and AIDS. Unfortunately our family friend had a blood transfusion where the blood did not receive proper checking and testing. This exposed him to the blood of an HIV-positive person. He contracted the virus and since they didn’t have treatment as advanced as now, he developed a full blown case of AIDS immediately and died soon after. I wanted to share this story because people are never going to stop making mistakes; it is a habit of life and sadly those small simple choices cost other people their lives. Since mankind is not going to evolve into perfect robots (anytime soon, at least), why don’t we come up with an answer, a solution to be able to prevent not only HIV/AIDS infections, but the pain and heartache that many suffer from this tragic disease. If the vaccine was available back then, we would have been able to prevent the loss of millions of loved ones. Now it’s time to move forward and see how we can advocate for the development of this HIV vaccine. Here are some ways you can get involved:
- Find out more information on the vaccine or HIV infections by going to http://www.AIDS.gov or visit our HIV Vaccine section.
- Educate your friends and family, children and parents, about the HIV vaccine, so we can start to spread the word of hope and encouragement and ultimately prevent the spread of HIV/AIDS.
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