For Immediate Release
Contact NAME
Phone Number
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[INSERT NAME OF CHC] Joins the Campaign to Promote Worlds AIDS Day on December 1
On December 1, many will come together to promote World AIDS Day. Originally started by the World
Health Organization (WHO) in 1988, Worlds AIDS Day is now promoted by UNAIDS as of 2004.
World AIDS Day calls for governments to act and to promote access for treatment and care for all. As a
primary and preventive health care provider focused on public health issues, [NAME OF HEALTH
CENTER] plays an important role in HIV/AIDS prevention, testing, and treatment.
"Our health center is dedicated to helping raise awareness about prevention of the spread of HIV/AIDS
and in caring for those who have acquired HIV/AIDS. Some of the services we provide include [INSERT
SERVICES]," said [INSERT NAME OF CEO].
At the peak of the diseases in 1995, HIV/AIDS was the number one cause of death among those aged 2544; however, as of 2011, it is now the sixth leading cause of death in the United States. The WHO
estimates that nearly 25 million worldwide have died from the disease since the start of the epidemic.
In 2008, 33.4 million people worldwide were living with the disease, including 2.1 million children under
the age of 15.
When a person is infected, simple health issues such as common bacteria, yeast, and parasites can cause
death. HIV destroys important cells that fight disease and infections, and the virus can hide in the cells
of a person's body for a long time and attacks key parts of the immune system such as the T-Cells or CD4
cells. These cells fight infections and disease, but HIV invades them and makes more copies of itself,
thus destroying important cells. Eventually HIV kills all of the T-Cells or CD4 cells and the body can no
longer fight infections or diseases any more. At this point, the infection can lead to AIDS.
"Many people have misconceptions about this virus. They think that if a person has HIV, they
automatically have AIDS," said [INSERT NAME OF CEO]. "A person who is HIV positive can pass on the
virus, but they do not automatically have AIDS. AIDS is the most advanced stage of HIV. It is when a
person's badly damaged immune system can no longer fight infections or disease and puts the person at
risk for opportunistic infections."
A person is diagnosed with AIDS if they have one or more specific opportunistic infections (OIs), certain
cancers, or a very low number of CD4 cells in their body. To be HIV positive, a person has been exposed
to HIV and their two HIV tests -- the preliminary enzyme immunoassay (EIA) test and confirmatory
western blot test -- both came back positive for antibodies. Treatment of HIV can prevent AIDS from
developing in the body.
With the primary HIV infection, symptoms can include fever, chills, rash, night sweats, muscle aches,
sore throat, fatigue, swollen lymph nodes, and ulcers in the mouth. These symptoms are often the same
as the flu, respiratory infections, or gastrointestinal infections, so a diagnosis can be easily missed. Many
who are HIV positive do not have symptoms of an HIV infection and do not know they have the virus
until it is developing into AIDS. Many often describe their symptoms as having the "worst flu ever." The
primary HIV infection, or Acute Retroviral Syndrome (ARS), is during the first two to four weeks after
exposure to the virus, but can last up to three months. ARS is the body's natural response to higher
levels of the virus in the blood when the virus is more easily transmittable; however, not everyone
experiences ARS.
After the initial infections and seroconversion, the virus is less active in the body during the chronic or
latency phase. During this phase, many people do not have symptoms up to ten years or even longer.
Once a person has AIDS, the final step in the process, their symptoms can include: fatigue, diarrhea,
nausea, vomiting, fever, chills, night sweats, and wasting syndrome. Wasting syndrome comes in the
late stages of AIDS and is when the body involuntarily losses 10% or more of body weight and diarrhea,
weakness, and fever lasts more than 30 days. This AIDS defining condition causes the loss of muscle
mass and weight due to the loss of fat in the body.
Transmission can occur through sexual contact, through blood transfusions, needle sharing, and from
mother to children. Blood transfusions are now carefully monitored in the United States and spreading
of the disease through this method is extremely rare. Blood and organ donor programs also thoroughly
screen donors, blood, and tissue. Mothers can pass the virus to their children through shared blood
circulation when the fetus is in the womb or when a mother nurses with her breast milk. Transmission
does not occur through casual contact such as hugging, mosquitoes, sports, and touching items that an
infected person may have previously handled.
While anyone can be infected by the virus, some sections of the population are more at risk. Those
groups include: drug users who share needles, infants whose mothers are infected with the virus and did
not receive HIV therapy during their pregnancy, those engaging in unprotected sex, patients who
received a blood transfusion between 1977 and 1985 before screening of donors was common practice,
and those who have sex partners that partake in risky behaviors.
“We encourage everyone, especially those with increased risk factors, to come into the center to be
tested,” said [INSERT NAME OF CEO].
For more information, visit aids.gov or cdc.gov. More information can also be found on the Iowa Primary
Care Association's facebook (facebook.com/ianepca) and twitter (twitter.com/iowapca) sites during the
month of December.
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