HIV/AIDS remains one of those subjects that not talked about so much over the dinner table or when out for coffee with the girls. But prehaps it should be because the numbers tell us it’s a disease that does not seem to be going away. In fact, according this Snapshot of the U.S. Epidemic provided by the Kaiser Family Foundation, it seems to be growing…

• Number of new HIV infections, 2006: 56,300
• Number of people living with HIV/AIDS: 1.1 million, including more than 468,000 with AIDS
• Number of AIDS deaths since beginning of epidemic: 583,298, including 14,561 in 2007
• Percent of people infected with HIV who don’t know it: 21%

So what can you do? The CDC suggests the following.

• Get tested for HIV. To find a testing site center near you, text your zip code to Know IT (566948).
• Attend an event near you.
• Download or listen to National Women and Girls HIV/AIDS Awareness Day ( 2:56 mins)
• Learn more about the impact of HIV/AIDS among women in the United States.
• Stand up against stigma, racism, and other forms of discrimination associated with HIV/AIDS.
• Donate time and money to HIV/AIDS organizations.

Post from: Healthbolt

The degree to which we absorb these messages was measured recently by researchers from the Kaiser Family Foundation. They met with Grey’s Anatomy writers and staff and created a storyline that focused on a pregnant HIV-positive woman who initially demands an abortion, fearing she will pass the virus that causes AIDS to her child. During this episode, she finds out that with proper treatment she has a 98 percent chance of delivering a HIV-free baby.

To find out if this message got through, the researchers surveyed a group of randomly selected regular Grey’s Anatomy watchers. These viewers were questioned, testing their knowledge and attitudes about HIV-positive women giving birth prior to seeing the episode, one week after, and again, six weeks after the episode was screened.

Here’s one of the questions they were asked…

“As far as you know, if a woman who is HIV positive becomes pregnant and receives the proper treatment, what is the chance that she will give birth to a healthy baby, not infected with HIV?

(The answer? There is a more than 90 percent chance of having a healthy baby with the right treatment.)

The results…

• 53 percent knew the correct answer  a week before the episode was aired.
• 76 percent knew the correct answer a week after  the show aired.
• 63 percent still knew the correct answer six weeks after the program aired.

Victoria Rideout, led researcher and study author concludes “This study shows the enormous potential for entertainment television to serve as a health educator… for better or worse, viewers do absorb the health information they see on TV, so it’s important for these shows to get it right.”

So we get pretty faces and knowledge too. What more could we ask for?

(source)

Post from: Healthbolt