HIV/AIDS AWARENESS
Human immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) and the Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome (AIDS) brings a lot of cruel thoughts to an individual’s mind because of the amount of misconceptions about this disease. An example of this would be that there are a lot of people that will say you shouldn’t share a drink with someone who has HIV or AIDS because of the risk of contracting the virus, which is untrue. A person will not contract the virus from sharing a drink, or utensil or even from kissing. Another common misconception is that sharing a razor can also transmit HIV or AIDS. For hygienic purposes sharing a razor is not a good idea in the first place but you cannot contract HIV from doing so. With this being said there are …show more content…

Out of these Canadians, 34 490 were gay men and or other men who have sex with men, this representing about 50% of the HIV and AIDS population in Canada. However 33 330 of the homosexual men with HIV status was likely attributed to sexual intercourse with a male partner and the other 2, 160 from injection drug use. Injection drug use can attribute up to 20% of the HIV Canadian population which is approximately 14 200 people. Roughly 600 people who have the HIV status did not contract it from having sex or drug injection. This group likely contracted it from blood transfusions, clotting factors, transmission from mother to child, or needle stick injury in the work place, which only represents 1% of the HIV population in Canada, about 23% of this population (16 600 people) is women. An estimated 6,380 Aboriginal Canadians, about 9% are also included in the Canadian HIV population. This incurable disease is known to have killed almost 25 000 Canadians since the epidemic began (AIDS.gov)
A commonly asked question that people inquire about has to do with the signs and symptoms of HIV and or AIDS. In the early stages of HIV there are no signs or symptoms (Michael Horberg, MD at Kaiser Permanete), however, as the virus progresses one of the first symptoms