One of the best ways you can support World AIDS Day is to get tested for HIV/AIDS.

According to AIDS.org testing is recommended if you:
* You think you may have been exposed to the HIV. If you’re not sure, take this anonymous survey.
* You are sexually active (3 or more sexual partners in the last 12 months)
* You received a blood transfusion between 1977 and 1985, or a sexual partner received a transfusion and later tested positive for HIV.
* You are uncertain about your sexual partner’s risk behaviors.
* You are a male who has had sex with another male at any time since 1977.
* Any of your male sexual partners has had sex with another male since 1977.
* You have used street drugs by injection since 1977, especially when sharing needles and/or other equipment.
* You have a sexually transmitted disease (STD), including pelvic inflammatory disease (PID).
* You are a health care worker with direct exposure to blood on the job.
* You are pregnant. There are now treatments that can greatly reduce the risk that a pregnant woman who has HIV will give the virus to her baby.
* You are a woman who wants to make sure you are not infected with HIV before getting pregnant.

Even if none of these risk factors affect you, it’s still a good idea to be tested. Getting tested can be scary, but the results may put your mind at ease. And it’s never a bad idea to know more about your health.For testing location near you takepart and visit http://www.hivtest.org/

I love my classic Converse Chucks. I also love that Converse joined the Project Red cause. This year Converse created the Converse 1HUND(RED) in which Converse commissioned 100 musicians, graphic and graffiti artists from all over the world to create one-of-a-kind sneaker designs inspired by the global fight against HIV and AIDS in Africa.
So why not buy a holiday gift this year that not only looks good, but does good? takepart and get your Converse Reds today http://www.joinred.com/Learn/Partners/Converse.aspx. Or why not purchase a pair for yourself in honor of World AIDS Day and support the fight against AIDS in style.You can also customize your own (PRODUCT) RED sneakers online with their “MAKE MINE RED” platform. 5-15% of the net sales goes directly to the Global Fund.

1,080,965 American have HIV/AIDS. Makes having sex feel pretty scary, right? Well prove you’ve been tested (and tested negative)-get a Safe Sex License! This clinically backed, wallet-sized photo ID is available through STFree.To takepart simply sign up online at http://www.stfree.com/, download the clinic verification form, get tested and then mail the results to STFree. Soon you’ll get a a card with your STFree member ID and photo. The next time you want to prove to a potential partner that you in fact, do not have HIV or AIDS, just tell them your secret password and ID, and have them call 1-888-207-4216. The system will provide results from your last two HIV/AIDS tests.
Check out STFree video-

Additionally STF offers similar accounts for gonorrhea, herpes and other STDs.

This week students at a St. Louis high school took HIV tests after an infected person told health officials as many as 50 teenagers might have been exposed to the virus.

Officials refused to give details on who the person was or how the students at Normandy High School might have been exposed, but the district is consulting with national AIDS organizations as it tries to minimize the fallout and prevent the infection and misinformation from spreading. “There’s potential for stigma for all students regardless of whether they’re positive or negative,” Normandy School District spokesman Doug Hochstedler said Thursday. “The board wants to be sure all children are fully educated.” -Associated Press

How does HIV possibly spread to 50 students? Were they all getting tattoos in the cafeteria from an infected needle? Unless an infected student had unprotected sex with a student and that student had unprotected sex with another student, and so and so forth. Highschool students are suppose to be worrying about college applications and who to take to prom, not contracting HIV!

This is why I am afraid to have kids.

Educate yourself and your kids about AIDS and HIV prevention, takepart and visit avert.org. AVERT is the world’s most popular AIDS website providing AIDS education and information to people in almost every country in the world.

At a a two-day conference in Dublin co-hosted by Irish Aid and UNICEF last week,
singer and AIDS activist Annie Lennox discussed broader global awareness of HIV and AIDS as a way to help fight the pandemic. Lennox said what we must do is help people the ordinary person in the street who wants to do something to find a way to connect, to find a way to make a difference.

UNICEF: Annie Lennox speaks at Dublin Forum on Children

Over 1,000 children are infected daily by HIV and over 15 million worldwide have lost one or both parents to AIDS. takepart help UNICEF in the fight against HIV and AIDS

The TakePart Top 10 Weekly Roundup is a compilation of the week’s most notable stories from our entertainment-meets-social-action blogging network. Check out some of our most popular stories of the week, as well as a few TakePart blogger favorites!

TakePart Gang:

Arrested in Development by Wendy Cohen

Is Google Making Us Dumber? by Blair Golson

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Nicole Hughes:

Top 5 Ways to Green Your July 4th

Greenopia: Eco-Guides For Your City

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Andy Kondrat:

Hypermiling Contest Winner Gets 124 Miles to the Gallon

Rise in Fuel Prices May Lead to Dirtier Energy Sources

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Jon Popham:

Red Tide in Yellow Sea Threatens Olympics

Mercedes-Benz Ditching Gasoline Cars by 2015

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Giulia Rozzi:

46664 Concert: Happy Birthday Nelson Mandela

Denise Richards Likes to Share

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Gina Telaroli:

Top 10 Movies for the 4th of July: For Patriots and Cynics!

The Radical and Beautiful Journey of Wall-E

A star-studded cast of artists celebrated Nelson Mandela’s 90th birthday with a giant concert in London on Friday in support of his global AIDS campaign, 46664. Watch this video of Amy Winehouse performing “Free Nelson Mandela” at the concert. 46664 is an African response to the global HIV AIDS epidemic that invites the whole world to take the fight in hand. It’s our aim to raise awareness overall and educate the younger generations in particular. By gaining global backing for the cause, 46664 will also raise funds to directly assist the many HIV AIDS

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Singer Kelly Rowland took an AIDS test in Africa to raise awareness of the disease. Rowland took the test while in Nairobi on Thursday to help reduce the stigma of the disease in the country, where people fear discrimination if they are tested.

Ignorance is not bliss when it comes to HIV infection, and it is important for everyone to know their HIV status, she said. The quicker you know your status, the sooner you can receive treatment if you’re HIV+, and reduce the risk of inadvertently infecting future partners.” Rowland is in Africa as the first ever Ambassador for MTV’s Staying Alive Foundation, and hopes to help the people of Kenya get the disease under control.  HIV/AIDS is at pandemic levels through much of Africa, with UNAIDS-the United Nations Program on HIV/AIDS – estimating that more than 22 million adults and children are living with the disease on the continent. The singer also took the time to visit the 2008 recipients of the Staying Alive Foundation’s grants, who have been chosen for their efforts to encourage, educate and empower their peers in the fight against HIV and AIDS.

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Elizabeth Pisani’s new book The Wisdom of Whores examines AIDS research and treatment and how bureaucracy plays a role in both. More than that though, she offers an alternative to a system she sees as broken:

“It would mean spending lots more of the available money on prostitutes, addicts, and gay guys, and lots less on school kids, pregnant women, and church groups,” Pisani writes. “It would mean making fun things (sex, drugs) safe, instead of trying to make safe things (abstinence, monogamy) fun.” [NPR]

Sounds good to me…

takepart to learn more from Pisani in her NPR Fresh Air interview and also
takepart to read her blog, a funny yet serious series of posts about AIDS, sexuality, sex and reality - this opening was perhaps one of the best things I have read in some time

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