Today, December 1st, is World AIDS Day.  30 years after the first reports of AIDS in the United States, HIV – the virus that can lead to AIDS – is still a reality for 1.1 million Americans.  Complicating matters is that fact that one in every five people living with HIV in the United States is unaware that he or she is infected.

That’s why, despite increased awareness of HIV/AIDS, we still need to do more to ensure that every American who may be at risk gets tested. PatientsLikeMe is joining the AIDS.gov initiative in “Facing AIDS” today.  This social media campaign is an easy way to show your support of The National HIV/AIDS Strategy – and it’s inspired by the current trend of taking photos while holding a sign with a message written on it.  Are you ready to join the campaign too?

As the video above illustrates, here’s how it works:

1. Write. Download a sign and add a message about why you are “Facing AIDS.”
2. Snap. Take a photo holding your sign and upload it to the Facing AIDS Gallery.
3. Share. Use social media (Facebook, Twitter, your blog, etc.) to share your photo.

What else can you do?  Remind people that you can locate your local HIV testing site by texting your zip code to “KNOWIT” (566948) or using the HIV/AIDS Prevention and Service Provider Locator, which includes maps and directions.   Also, check out and share our video about how one member has faced HIV/AIDS for more than 25 years (it has 40,000+ views on YouTube so far!), and if you’re a PatientsLikeMe member, subscribe to AIDS.gov’s profile page for updates.

Only by facing AIDS can we prevent it.

This entry was posted on December 1, 2011 at 11:22 am and is filed under Conferences/Events, HIV/AIDS, Openness. Tagged: AIDS.gov, Facing AIDS, National HIV/AIDS Strategy, social media campaign, testing site locator, world aids day. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.