The main objective of organizing an AIDS Awareness Day is to educate the community and to correct any misconceptions about AIDS and educating people, while stressing the importance of following-up with the physician and taking all the required treatment while ditching the stigma associated with this disease which causes the community to reject patients with AIDS thus making them not seek early detection and treatment, according to the Co-Executive Director of Department of Infection Prevention and Control, Dr. Majid Alshamrani in King Abdulaziz Medical City - Jeddah.
Dr. Majid also explained that HIV virus attacks the human immune system cells and causes gradual deterioration to its functions, making it not able to perform its role in fighting infections, which leads to the disease we know as (AIDS). The fact that a person is HIV positive doesn’t not mean that he/she has AIDS; as there are inhibitors that help in blocking the virus replication which will make the immune cells in the body live longer to protect it from any infections. Using inhibitors can make people living with HIV enjoy a healthy normal life. AIDS is the last stage of this type of diseases, and there are around 36.9 million people living with HIV, and in 2014, the number of HIV positive cases were 2 million. In addition, HIV virus, through various therapeutic interventions, cannot be transmitted from a mother to her unborn child, the intervention starts early in the planning stage and through the different stages of pregnancy and after birth.
AIDS Awareness Day activities will commence on Tuesday, December 1st, 2015 the slogan "Everyone, hand in hand against AIDS 2015”, this awareness event will be organized by King Abdulaziz Medical City in Jeddah, represented by the Department of Infection Prevention and Control, and with the participation of a number of other departments in King Abdul Aziz Medical City – Jeddah
The events aims at providing health education and awareness to target patients and visitors in the outpatient clinics, along with health workers and staff from doctors and nurses to technicians. The programs will also include educational materials on preventive and treatment measures, AIDS among children and among pregnant women, the drugs used in the treatment of AIDS and its complications, in addition to psychological health and social support of AIDS patients.