COS TO OBSERVE WORLD AIDS AWARENESS DAY

COS TO OBSERVE WORLD AIDS AWARENESS DAY

Guest Columnist: Micki Sinclair, COS HIV/AIDS Education Coordinator.

College of the Siskiyous is hosting World Aids Day "Aids Awareness" on Wednesday, December 1, 10 a.m. to 2 p.m., at the Weed Campus, in the Student Center. The Center is located in Administration Building. The public is invited to attend the four-hour open house. A panel of the AIDS Memorial Quilt will be on display. Representatives from Siskiyou County Aids Foundation will be on hand to greet the public. Educational videos and confidential oral HIV testing ($5 per test) will be offered between 12 noon and 2 p.m.

Th twelfth annual World AIDS Day will be observed around the world on December 1^st. This year’s World AIDS Day theme is "AIDS – End the Silence, Listen, Learn, Live!" The purpose of this theme is to promote communication with those who are affected, directly and indirectly, by HIV/AIDS. World AIDS Day aims to increase awareness of the magnitude of the HIV/AIDS epidemic globally and in the United States despite new hope in treatment. Ending the silence about HIV/AIDS will stimulate the development of new programs for young people to minimize their vulnerability to HIV and reduce the stigma and discrimination surrounding the epidemic.

As of 1999, 33.4 million men, women and children worldwide were estimated to be living with HIV/AIDS. If current trends continue, nearly 40 million adults will be infected with HIV, about 590,000, children under 15 and more than 2.5 million 15-24 year olds. As of 1998, in the United States, 688,200 people had been reported infected with HIV/AIDS.

All communities are affected by the continuing spread of AIDS. Here in Siskiyou County, according to local statistics, as of November 1999, 35 people have been diagnosed and reported with AIDS, of which 17 have died.

World AIDS Day will link communities throughout the United States in a unified observance when the White House dims its lights on the evening of December 1. This visual demonstration will signify the commitment to fight the AIDS global epidemic and will give tribute to people living with HIV/AIDS and to those who have died from AIDS.

One hundred ninety-one countries around the world are observing this day to draw attention to the AIDS epidemic. In the United States, activities for World AIDS Day around the country are coordinated by the American Association for World Health, in conjunction with the Joint United Nations Program on HIVAIDS (UNAIDS), the Pan American Health Organization, and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

For more information about the Aids Observance activities at College of the Siskiyous call HIV/AIDS Education Coordinator, Micki Sinclair, at the Weed Campus, 938-5502, or send an e-mail to sinclair@siskiyous.edu or call the Weed Campus toll-free 1-888-397-4339.