World AIDS Day 2018, on the theme "Know your state of infection" (Know your status), encourages more people to have AIDS screening to find out if they are infected with the virus, and then treat and prevent it. And UNAIDS and who are expected to end AIDS by 2030. Let go of fear and discrimination, give AIDS patients more care and respect, so that we together to the 0 AIDS Day.

December 1, people around the world are not on the red ribbon, today is "World AIDS Day."


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From 1988 to the present, it is the 30 anniversary of the establishment of World AIDS Day. As of 2017, AIDS had killed 28.9 million to 41.5 million people worldwide. This year's World AIDS Day, which advocates the theme "Know your state of infection" (Know your status), encourages more people to have AIDS screening to find out if they are infected with the virus and link resources related to treatment and prevention. However, 37 years have passed since the discovery of the first AIDS patient in 1981, and stigma and discrimination persist, leaving many people afraid to screen or to be diagnosed when an infected person is dragged to the onset of the disease.

Do you know? From the discovery of HIV to the present day, we are gradually moving towards ending the AIDS society, the United Nations AIDS Programme (UNAIDS) and the World Health Organization (WHO) are expected to end AIDS by 2030. In 1981, the world's first AIDS infection was discovered; until 1995, when AIDS treatment dawned, the development of "cocktail therapy" began to delay the onset of most infected people, resulting in a significant decline in mortality, while the United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) and the World Health Organization (WHO) targeted 2020 "90–90–90":90% infected people know their infection status, 90% known infected people have medication, 90% of those who take the drug are suppressed, and are expected to end AIDS by 2030.

The three myths of AIDS still exist in the hearts of many people

At present, there have been significant changes and advances in AIDS related information, resources and medical technology, but there are still many people who stay in the 1980 's impression that AIDS is "dirty". AIDS patients are often shaped into a "bad" and "indiscreet" image, as if only "such a person" will get AIDS. In a 2016 submission , Lu Xinjie wrote that for a long time, Taiwan's AIDS policy and the direction of sex education were mostly threatened by intimidation, as follows: "If you have a one-night stand, you will have AIDS!" If you're having an affair, you're going to get AIDS! If you are unfaithful, you will get AIDS! If a man sleeps with a man, you'll get AIDS! If you have more than one sexual partner, you will get AIDS! 」

In the past few years, comrades have fought for the right to marriage, and many conservatives have used "comrade = AIDS" as a means of counterattack, through social software such as Facebook and line, to carry out stigma attacks, and even to refer to "exposure to pre-AIDS prophylactic dosing (PrEP)" as a cannon pill. Not only for the disease, AIDS prevention and treatment education has also been attacked: "Do not teach my children gay education, if he becomes gay, have to love aids?" 」


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See this, let's get together first to crack the common three big aids myths! (Recommended reading: Same-sex marriage passes, the number of AIDS surges? Five common aids rumors cracked )

  • "I don't want to share it with you!" "Is aids easy to infect?

AIDS is transmitted through "blood and body fluids", excluding tears, saliva, sweat, urine, faeces and so on. To pass through the blood infection virus, must also be "blood", humoral infectious disease virus, must be semen, vaginal fluid, prostate fluid, amniotic fluid. And HIV is very fragile, once flowing out of the body, exposed to the external environment, such as water or air, the virus can not survive.

  • "The main cause of AIDS is male men's behavior", Comrade equals aids?

Don't equate aids with comrades, the key to love is whether sex is safe, and condoms must be used throughout and correctly. Speaking of which, why would comrades associate with AIDS? By the "Nongan Street Incident" in 2004 [Note 1], comrades almost couldn't get off the hook with "AIDS" after much coverage and rendering through the news media. Although Taiwan currently has a high proportion of "unsafe sex" infection between men and men, it is dominated by heterosexual infections in the Asia-Pacific region and the central and western regions.

But no matter which ethnic group has a high proportion of infections, we should start to change society as a whole, give correct and healthy sex education, should not be marked or attributed to which ethnic group, because anyone may be infected with AIDS. To emphasize only the vulnerability of "one ethnic group" to infection will cause many people to ignore it, resulting in delays in diagnosis and treatment.

  • "Do you have multiple partners? "To get AIDS is to be indiscreet?"

Don't put the disease on the moral view, even if you have a single sexual partner, but as long as in oral sex, anus or vaginal intercourse and other sexual acts, not the whole process of "safe and correct" condom use, there is a risk of HIV infection.

AIDS is really not scary, now is not the 80 's

HIV was first discovered in 1980, and within 15 years of the discovery of the virus, the outbreak spread rapidly throughout the world, at a time when medical technology was helpless, resulting in a lot of deaths, people were afraid of AIDS from that time, and HIV was crowned "the Black Death of the 20th century".

AIDS is the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection of the human body, destroying the immunity of infected people, the emergence of a variety of clinical symptoms, so AIDS is strictly a group of symptoms group, the full name is "acquired immune deficiency syndrome (acquired immune deficiency syndrome, abbreviated as AIDS). Until 1996, Dr. He Daiyi invented "cocktail therapy," also known as three in one therapy, which adds three different drugs together to treat, significantly reducing the chance of AIDS and the rate of death.

At present, AIDS can also be used to prevent HIV through drugs, such as "pre-exposure prophylactic dosing (pre-exposure prophylaxis, PrEP)." Although AIDS is not yet fully cured, it can already be controlled as a chronic disease, so that patients through drugs and regular treatment, control is no different from the average person.

AIDS little knowledge: What is the difference between infected people and AIDS patients?
The incidence of AIDS is the emergence of HIV-related symptoms or CD4 lymphocytes less than 200, we define this patient as "AIDS patients"; CD4 more than 200 lymphatic balls, we call people living with HIV (referred to as infected people).

Hear the voice of an infected person and let go of your fear and compassion

In the 1980, infected people wanted to "live"; now, when AIDS can be controlled, infected people want to be able to "live the same life as the average person." (Recommended reading: The AIDS patient who won the post-crown of Miss Plus in the United States: "I learn how to love myself.")

In the official website of the Association for the Promotion of the rights of people living with AIDS, infected people share their stories, talk about their own aids, in the diagnosis of the story of rejection, the article mentioned:

"The AIDS Ordinance expressly regulates the obligation of persons infected to seek medical treatment, and medical personnel may not refuse to provide medical services because of the fact of infection. In October of that year, when I was in a clinic in a dentist's clinic, the equipment had begun to emit a disturbing drill, and I knew it was an operation to meet the blood of the teeth, hesitating for two seconds, and I began to quote a long list of lines that followed the previous look. But the dentist did not make any assessment and said directly to me: I refund your registration fee ... the case manager told me directly: You have been denied the doctor, but you can go to the right to help. After seeking assistance, a series of processes were initiated, and our complaint failed in the end. And I resisted seeing the dentist for four or five years as a result. The wisdom tooth eventually caused my whole row of teeth to squeeze and deform, and I was mortified for a very long time. 」

Because HIV is transmitted through blood and semen, the main route is through sex or the sharing of needles, so it is often crowned with moral evaluation. When infected with AIDS, infected people and patients are shrouded in fear, most of the fear is from the whole society, deep fear will be excluded by society, by different vision, separated from the family or intimate relationship, so many infected people and patients choose not to talk to those around them, or in the medical treatment, inform the AIDS, by various reasons to refuse the diagnosis, As in the true story above, the right to seek medical treatment may be denied.


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At this time, the most important thing is the level of friendliness of the community as a whole, everyone needs to look at AIDS objectively, stop adding moral criticism, because these values and moral criticism, only let infected people do not dare to do screening or timely medical treatment, not only patients will continue to be in danger of disease, but also the possibility of transmission of the virus to others, We should create a more friendly environment and society, so that patients can be fearless and comfortable screening, in order to effectively prevent HIV.

This day, we once again know AIDS, let go of your fear and discrimination, give AIDS patients more care and respect, let us welcome to 0 AIDS that day.