KANSAS DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH & ENVIRONMENT BILL GRAVES, GOVERNOR Gary R. Mitchell, Secretary

November 25, 1997

Contact: Don Brown

785-296-1529

1997 World AIDS Day Focuses on Children in a World with AIDS

Kansas Communities will engage in a variety of AIDS awareness activities as a part of World AIDS Day, December 1. The 1997 theme, "Give Children Hope in a World of AIDS," challenges us to reflect upon the long-term repercussions of this epidemic as it affects children throughout the world.

The growing trend of women in their childbearing years being infected with HIV is on the rise throughout the world. Because of this, there is a high risk that these women will inadvertently transmit HIV to their unborn children and/or orphan their children due to their own illness and death. Because the future of a nation emerges from the dreams and hopes of its children, special care is needed to prevent these dreams from being shattered by HIV/AIDS.

The United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS), estimates 22.6 million people, including 830,000 children, live with HIV/AIDS worldwide. UNAIDS projects by the end of 1997, one million children under the age of 15 will be infected with HIV.

Here in the United States, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reports that as of December of 1996, 581,429 people received an AIDS diagnosis. Of those diagnosed, 362,004 (62%) have died. In Kansas, the cumulative number of persons diagnosed with AIDS since the 1980s has risen from 1,794 in 1996 to 1,865 as of June 1997. Of those infected, 1,171 have died.

These figures, however, represent only a small fraction of the number of people impacted by the epidemic, including children, family members, friends, and loved ones of those who are infected. Large metropolitan areas continue to bear a large portion of AIDS cases.

Regardless of this trend, smaller communities are not free from this disease and must confront HIV/AIDS as a pressing public health challenge. Currently, there is no cure for HIV/AIDS. Therefore, prevention and risk reduction education, in combination with sustained behavioral change, continues to be the most effective means to prevent the spread of HIV/AIDS.

The Kansas Department of Health and Environment (KDHE) supports HIV education and risk reduction efforts, provided by county health departments and community based organizations, throughout the state. KDHE also supports counseling and testing sites, operated by various health agencies, located statewide. Persons with questions about AIDS or HIV should contact their family physician or their county health department.

A list of locations of counseling and testing sites is available at the KDHE Web site at http://www.kdheks.gov/hiv/counsul_testing.html