World AIDS Day: More than half of young HIV-infected Americans are not aware of their status

About one in four (26%) of all new HIV infections is among youth ages 13 to 24 years. About four in five of these infections occur in males. According to the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), most youth are not getting tested for HIV.

About 60% of youth with HIV do not know they are infected and so don’t receive treatment, putting them at risk for sickness and early death. Undetected, these youth can also unknowingly pass HIV to others.

World AIDS Day is an opportunity to celebrate the HIV/AIDS accomplishments achieved, like increased access to treatment and better prevention services; to remember those who have passed on; and to raise awareness of the challenges still facing us. World AIDS Day is an important day to remind our government and communities that HIV hasn’t disappeared and that it is still affecting people, especially our youth and persons of color, in a very real way. There is still a lot of work to do to combat stigma, raise money for prevention and treatment efforts, increase knowledge worldwide, and reduce discrimination and prejudice both surrounding HIV/AIDS and those who are infected.

Here at Farmworker Justice we are focused on HIV prevention in rural Latino and farmworker communities. Through our Aliados project, we publish a newsletter that summarizes the latest HIV research impacting the Latino and farmworker communities. The latest newsletter is available online here.

You can participate in World AIDS Day by spreading the word regarding the importance of getting tested for HIV to your digital community.

Twitter:
On World AIDS Day & every day, know your HIV status. Find an HIV testing site near you http:// go.usa.gov/g3qj #WAD2012

Facebook:
Today is World AIDS Day! Today and every day, know your HIV status. Find an HIV testing site near you:http://locator.aids.gov