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I Can't Believe What I Just Learned About AIDS!
Submitted By Anonymous

I was just looking over my notes for an event tonight. Until right now, I was one of those people who believed that AIDS in the U.S is under control. WOW! It’s not! Two teens are infected every hour, every day in the U.S.

More statistics:
* 40,000 to 80,000 new HIV cases each year in the U.S. About half of them are between the age of 13 and 24.
• 7 people per hour infected with HIV in U.S.
• 6 years ago, 27% of new HIV infections were female. Today 50% are female.
• 1 in 3 people with HIV don’t know they have it.
• 30-70% of people with HIV are asymptomatic for an average of 7-10 years.

It seems our young people feel immuned to the disease and moms like me are not talking about these statistics with my kids. I will today!

I featured a woman named Mildred Lewis, (on the “Inspired Moms” page), a mother of five, who was going to jump in front of a speeding subway after she heard the news she was infected with the HIV virus. Because the train was delayed 15 minutes she had time to reconsider and is now an activist for AIDS prevention. She is an amzing lady!

As much as I like to believe that the my children will never put themselves in a situation where HIV is an issue, I don’t have the power to live theirs for them.

I do, however, have the power at this time in their lives to make them sit quietly and listen to these statistics while they’re in my care.



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