World Aids Day

THE EDITOR: Aids is still a taboo in TT. Let us change that. A change is as good as a feast.

Yesterday was the 30th anniversary of World Aids Day. The World Health Organisation (WHO) joined global partners to commemorate the event under the theme "Know your Status." This campaign was first initiated by WHO in 1988.

The objectives for 2018 are to urge people to know their HIV infection status through testing, and to access HIV prevention, treatment and care services and to urge policy makers to promote a "Health for all" agenda for HIV and related health services, such tuberculosis, hepatitis and non-communicable diseases.

You can be at risk of HIV if you: have sex without a condom, receive an unsafe blood transfusion or are exposed to contaminated injecting equipment. HIV can also be transmitted from mother to child.

One million people die every year from HIV because they do not know they have HIV and are not on treatment, or start treatment too late.

In my mind the saddest words in the English language are "too late".

One in four people with HIV do not know they have it. Know your risks. Know your status.

The HIV epidemic is not over. Let us stop new HIV infections TT!

Prevent-Test-Treat.

AV RAMPERSAD, PRINCES TOWN

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"World Aids Day"

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