Rocking the RED pump!

Today is National Women and Girl’s HIV/AIDS Awareness Day and I am rocking my red pumps to raise awareness about a problem that still is prevalent in the U.S.  Currently the media focuses primarily on the International HIV/AIDS epidemic and it is very easy to forget that here in the United States AIDS is still an issue. This cause is near and dear to me because I spent well over a decade of my life dedicated to fighting HIV/AIDS both professionally and on a volunteer basis. In my last full time position  I was the Georgia State HIV/AIDS Director, managing a staff of 35 and $170 million dollar budget focused on Prevention and Care for people at risk and impacted by HIV/AIDS in Georgia. I continue to volunteer my time as a member of the blogger advisory council for the Elizabeth Glaser Pediatric AIDS foundation and fully support Join The Movement an effort to decrease the number of pediatric HIV/AIDS infections by half between 2009 and 2013.

Did you know that every 35 minutes a woman tests positive for HIV in the United States?
1 in 4 Americans living with HIV in the US are women and account for more than 93,900 cumulative deaths from AIDS.
Black women suffer disproportionately from this disease and acquire HIV at a rate 15 times greater than white women.
HIV/AIDS is the leading cause of death for African American women aged 25 to 34 (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. 2009. HIV/AIDS Surveillance Report, 2007. Vol. 19, Table 1.)

These numbers are astounding and clearly HIV/AIDS is still alive and well in the USA.  This disease is preventable. By knowing our status and utilizing safer sex practices we can keep ourselves from being at risk. Even if we are married we can help spread the word about how preventable this disease is and the necessity for testing. Share these facts and figures with your friends, your teens, your co-workers. Although there are wonderful medications available now to provide longevity for those infected, we can stop the spread of this disease by taking simple steps. Use condoms, dental dams and for IV drug users, don’t share needles.

Rocking my red pumps today is a no brainer for me. I want to see a world where no more of our children of hue are born with this disease, where no more of our mothers, grandmothers and daughters are at risk for HIV/AIDS.