We’re taking a pause on our efforts to keep you fly and fabulous to bring your attention to something far more important then Gucci and gold. Today Ooh La La Blog is observing World AIDs Day. This is a day to become aware of this deadly disease, but more importantly it’s a day to take ACTION! According to the Center for America’s progress, 33.4 million people worldwide live with HIV-AIDS. Here in the U.S. the HIV-AIDS crisis continues to affect many Americans. More than 1 million people are estimated to be living with HIV in the United States and yet one in five of these individuals don’t know their affected. These numbers are down right ALARMING!
So I ask you guys today do you know your status? I know mine. Getting tested for HIV/AIDs is apart of my yearly exam. If you don’y know find out by getting TESTED! In order to prevent the spread of this disease we need to get tested on a regular basis. Many health departments and clinics throughout the country are providing testing free of charge or at a very low rate. We’ve included a widget on our site today to help you find the nearest testing site in your community.
Please share your stories and thoughts with us. Lets promote healthy conversations on this disease. Your thoughts could help others. I will start first .
I first became aware of how hard hitting this disease is back in 2006 at Syracuse University. I was in the Masters program studying broadcast journalism. My partner and I wanted to work on a story that was real and could leave an impact. We decided to focus on the impact AIDs/HIV has on black women. We talked to two women who were living with HIV and activist in the community. One of the ladies contracted the disease through her boyfriend.She didn’t find out it was him who gave her the disease until she went to a center for people living with HIV/AIDs and saw his mother there volunteering. She called him and all he could say was I didn’t want to loose you and that was the only way I knew how to keep you. She also described a conversation she had with her mother a week before she was diagnosed. He mother said I think they should send all of those son- of- a- bitches to an island and let them live there together. When she found out she had HIV all she could think of was the conversation she had with her mother. This young lady became so sick, at one point she was on her death bed in hospice. She was told she only had a week to live and to get her affairs in order. She said ” A week to live I can’t even get my luggage together to go on a trip in a week and you want me to get my life in order.” The other lady interviewed was a bit older. She didn’t know how she contracted the disease. She said it had to come through her heavy heroin addiction or prostitution. She prostituted to keep up her Heroin habit. She says she found out she was living with AIDs after falling ill. She was so sick that she was hospitalized and the doctors came in and told her she had full blown AIDs. She said she asked the doctors, ” I thought HIV came first, how did I jump right to AIDs?” She also admitted to infecting others with AIDs unknowingly since she didn’t find out she had the disease until she had full blown AIDs. These two women spoke so candidly with us and exposed us to their daily regime of care. Their stories are forever itched in my mind. Those weeks we spent with those two women changed my perspective on the disease and my desire to help change others perspective.
