World AIDS Day was designated by United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS, UNAIDS, to raise awareness on the AIDS pandemic caused by the spread of the HIV infection and mourn those who have died of the disease.

Government and health Officials, nongovernmental organisations, and individuals around the globe observe the day, often with education on Aids prevention and control.

From the records, as of 2017, AIDS has killed between twenty-eight-point-nine million and forty-one-point-five million people worldwide and an estimated thirty-six-point-seven million
people are said to be living with HIV, making it one of the most important global public health issues in recorded history.

Speaking with ABS Queen Anigbogu, an official of the Family Health International in Anambra state, Mr Emeka Amuta, said the diagnosis of Aids is not a death sentence as there are antiretroviral, ART, drugs that help in the treatment of the disease.

Mr Amuta called on all who are yet to know their HIV statues to do so, and disclosed that about twenty-five thousand people access HIV treatment in Anambra state at three months interval.

While  identifying fear and stigma as some of the reasons people refuse to go for HIV test, Mr Amuta  reassured that the state government is supporting the fight against HIV/AIDS at all levels.

In his remark, a volunteer ART Official at one of the state government hospitals who refused to be identified, said that at the hospital, they attend to up to three thousand AIDS patients on monthly basis, and advised parents whose adopted children are HIV positive not to reject them, but to still go ahead and care for them as their own
biological children.

Although getting an HIV test is quick and painless, many people still put it off because of fear and stigma.

However, the Centre for Disease Control, CDC, recommends that every one between the ages of thirteen and sixty-four, gets tested for HIV, at least once as part of routine health care.

The Centre mentioned ways through which the disease can be contracted to include sex, sharing of needles or syringes or other equipments used to prepare drugs for injection with someone infected with HIV.
It also noted that HIV can spread from mother to child during pregnancy, birth or breast feeding.

According to CDC, the bottom line is that whether positive or negative, HIV testing is a positive step.

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