Deanna TaylorToday is World Aids Day
Rob Alexander was 25 with a newborn baby and a year-old marriage when he applied for life insurance. Five weeks later, his application was rejected for health reasons. He figured he had diabetes, which runs in his family.
Then he got a call. The doctor wanted to see him immediately.
Alexander went down to the office. The doctor handed him a piece of paper, a lab report, and then told him he had AIDS
Today is World AIDS Day. This year’s theme is “Paint the Town Red”.
There are numerous events happening all over Salt Lake today.
AVERT, the international aids charity, has a nice website
with worlwide stats on AIDS.
The Worldwide Faith News archives posts: Report cites positive signs amid rising HIV/AIDS statistics
According to figures from the 2006 update, released Nov. 21, an estimated 39.5 million people are living with HIV. Southern Africa “remains the epicenter of the global HIV epidemic,” with 32 percent of those infected living in the sub-region and 34 percent of AIDS-related deaths occurring there.
In fact, 65 percent of the 4.3 million new infections in 2006 occurred in sub-Saharan Africa, but significant increases also were seen in the infection rates in Eastern Europe and Central Asia. Some 2.9 million people have died of AIDS-related illnesses in 2006.
The update reports that 1.7 million people are living with HIV/AIDS in Eastern Europe and Central Asia, where the infection rate has seen a 20-fold increase in less than a decade. Most of the 15- to 24-year-olds living with the disease in the region are in the Russian Federation and the Ukraine. They make up nearly one-third of the new infections. Dirty needles are the prime mode of HIV transmission.
