On December 1, we celebrate World AIDS Day. This year the campaign will go under the motto “My health, my right”. Are people sufficiently informed about the ways of spreading HIV and how to protect themselves, commented Denitsa Baramova, director of the Bulgarian Youth Red Cross Directorate. – Mrs. Baramova, the BMCHK is actively involved in celebrating the World AIDS Day. What initiatives do you have planned today? In almost all of our organizations, corresponding to the 28 regions of Bulgaria, there will be various types of information campaigns. Volunteers are looking for non-standard ways to inform the community – handing out condoms, filling out a scrapbook, brochures and more. But what everyone should know is that on December 1, volunteers of the Youth Red Cross will be in the center of every regional city and in some of the municipalities. There will also be so-called sessions and lectures in school aimed at 7th and 8th graders, different in each area, regarding sexually transmitted diseases and more generally on the topic of sexual risk behavior. In Sofia, the world day will traditionally be celebrated with a procession that starts from “Vitoshka” at 6 pm today and will end with the traditional red ribbon and candles. – Do you think that young people in our country are sufficiently informed about what HIV/AIDS is and what safe sex is? There is more to be desired. Our organization has been working in this direction since 1991, but young people and students of the appropriate age, of course, should have their sexual knowledge, education. We support this process with our daily actions, and not only on December 1 and May, every year our volunteers carry out such sessions in school. – And how is the issue of awareness in the Roma communities in our country? Our generalizations are not always correct, but by and large, more work needs to be done in these communities. There certainly what we can give ourselves as feedback is that more and more work is needed because we don’t have as much range as we would like to have as a percentage of attitude. All year round our volunteers work on this topic. We have district organizations that work in these communities, have good contacts with schools, leaders and others. But I say again, the work must be intensified in this direction. – Many people say to themselves: “It can’t happen to me”. Do you have statistics on how many people in our country are tested for HIV/AIDS and what percentage of them are young people? I like this tagline that we tell ourselves: “It can’t happen to me”, but actually it has an extension – “It can’t happen to me, I’m not informed enough”. The appeal during our campaigns is to inform ourselves in detail and on time. The truth is that over 200,000 people are examined annually, but this is in general terms. It is done by all blood donors, all women who give birth or need to be admitted to medical facilities.The appeal is for everyone to realize their status and find the right moment to get tested. We don’t have exact information on how many young people out of these more than 200,000 a year are examined, but I think that this figure is not a bad result. – What is the easiest way to check our HIV status? The current trend is that more men are contracting HIV than women. The way everyone can do good and find out their HIV status is when they donate blood. Every blood donor is tested for HIV. There are offices for free consultation and examination. There are instant tests that can be used, that is, the result is immediately available. After a possible positive result, there are follow-up tests that are confirmatory, but then the colleagues who do the tests will consult the person concerned and guide him to the appropriate steps. NEWS_MORE_BOX – What is the most important thing to know about HIV/AIDS? The information campaigns we are doing on the occasion of December 1 make it clear that there are three ways in which HIV can spread. The first is gender, which in percentage terms is the most common. Currently, over 80% are sexually transmitted. The other way is blood, and the third is mother-child. But there, with the advancement of medicine, there is a very small prevalence rate. The other thing that is important to say is that there is discrimination against people living with HIV. – In many cases, these people find it difficult to socialize and cannot find a job. Are you working towards discrimination? Our slogan that we usually use is: “Hugging doesn’t kill, discrimination does.” We at the Bulgarian Red Cross and Youth Red Cross are constantly working in the direction of reducing discrimination in Bulgaria by different groups, on different topics. On the one hand, we are trying to raise people’s awareness of how HIV spreads and how it would not lead to infection if your colleague is seropositive. But discrimination in Bulgaria is at a high level and is rather hidden. Very rarely HIV-positive people have the courage to declare their HIV status, which means that we all have to work harder and harder in this direction. – Can we say that HIV/AIDS is no longer a deadly threat? Unfortunately, we cannot say that it is not fatal as there are still many people who continue to end their lives due to what is known as acquired immune deficiency. In 2016, in Bulgaria, it was 22 people, and since the beginning of the epidemic, there are more than 1,000. So it continues to be a deadly disease, but medicine continues to progress more and more. We can’t talk about vaccination or anything like that yet, but what does exist are therapies that maintain and improve the health status of HIV-positive people on a daily basis.- What is the easiest way to check our HIV status? The current trend is that more men are contracting HIV than women. The way everyone can do good and find out their HIV status is when they donate blood. Every blood donor is tested for HIV. There are offices for free consultation and examination. There are instant tests that can be used, that is, the result is immediately available. After a possible positive result, there are follow-up tests that are confirmatory, but then the colleagues who do the tests will consult the person concerned and guide him to the appropriate steps. NEWS_MORE_BOX – What is the most important thing to know about HIV/AIDS? The information campaigns we are doing on the occasion of December 1 make it clear that there are three ways in which HIV can spread. The first is gender, which in percentage terms is the most common. Currently, over 80% are sexually transmitted. The other way is blood, and the third is mother-child. But there, with the advancement of medicine, there is a very small prevalence rate. The other thing that is important to say is that there is discrimination against people living with HIV. – In many cases, these people find it difficult to socialize and cannot find a job. Are you working towards discrimination? Our slogan that we usually use is: “Hugging doesn’t kill, discrimination does.” We at the Bulgarian Red Cross and Youth Red Cross are constantly working in the direction of reducing discrimination in Bulgaria by different groups, on different topics. On the one hand, we are trying to raise people’s awareness of how HIV spreads and how it would not lead to infection if your colleague is seropositive. But discrimination in Bulgaria is at a high level and is rather hidden. Very rarely HIV-positive people have the courage to declare their HIV status, which means that we all have to work harder and harder in this direction. – Can we say that HIV/AIDS is no longer a deadly threat? Unfortunately, we cannot say that it is not fatal as there are still many people who continue to end their lives due to what is known as acquired immune deficiency. In 2016, in Bulgaria, it was 22 people, and since the beginning of the epidemic, there are more than 1,000. So it continues to be a deadly disease, but medicine continues to progress more and more. We can’t talk about vaccination or anything like that yet, but what does exist are therapies that maintain and improve the health status of HIV-positive people on a daily basis.- What is the easiest way to check our HIV status? The current trend is that more men are contracting HIV than women. The way everyone can do good and find out their HIV status is when they donate blood. Every blood donor is tested for HIV. There are offices for free consultation and examination. There are instant tests that can be used, that is, the result is immediately available. After a possible positive result, there are follow-up tests that are confirmatory, but then the colleagues who do the tests will consult the person concerned and guide him to the appropriate steps. NEWS_MORE_BOX – What is the most important thing to know about HIV/AIDS? The information campaigns we are doing on the occasion of December 1 make it clear that there are three ways in which HIV can spread. The first is gender, which in percentage terms is the most common. Currently, over 80% are sexually transmitted. The other way is blood, and the third is mother-child. But there, with the advancement of medicine, there is a very small prevalence rate. The other thing that is important to say is that there is discrimination against people living with HIV. – In many cases, these people find it difficult to socialize and cannot find a job. Are you working towards discrimination? Our slogan that we usually use is: “Hugging doesn’t kill, discrimination does.” We at the Bulgarian Red Cross and Youth Red Cross are constantly working in the direction of reducing discrimination in Bulgaria by different groups, on different topics. On the one hand, we are trying to raise people’s awareness of how HIV spreads and how it would not lead to infection if your colleague is seropositive. But discrimination in Bulgaria is at a high level and is rather hidden. Very rarely HIV-positive people have the courage to declare their HIV status, which means that we all have to work harder and harder in this direction. – Can we say that HIV/AIDS is no longer a deadly threat? Unfortunately, we cannot say that it is not fatal as there are still many people who continue to end their lives due to what is known as acquired immune deficiency. In 2016, in Bulgaria, it was 22 people, and since the beginning of the epidemic, there are more than 1,000. So it continues to be a deadly disease, but medicine continues to progress more and more. We can’t talk about vaccination or anything like that yet, but what does exist are therapies that maintain and improve the health status of HIV-positive people on a daily basis.After a possible positive result, there are follow-up tests that are confirmatory, but then the colleagues who do the tests will consult the person concerned and guide him to the appropriate steps. NEWS_MORE_BOX – What is the most important thing to know about HIV/AIDS? The information campaigns we are doing on the occasion of December 1 make it clear that there are three ways in which HIV can spread. The first is gender, which in percentage terms is the most common. Currently, over 80% are sexually transmitted. The other way is blood, and the third is mother-child. But there, with the advancement of medicine, there is a very small prevalence rate. The other thing that is important to say is that there is discrimination against people living with HIV. – In many cases, these people find it difficult to socialize and cannot find a job. Are you working towards discrimination? Our slogan that we usually use is: “Hugging doesn’t kill, discrimination does.” We at the Bulgarian Red Cross and Youth Red Cross are constantly working in the direction of reducing discrimination in Bulgaria by different groups, on different topics. On the one hand, we are trying to raise people’s awareness of how HIV spreads and how it would not lead to infection if your colleague is seropositive. But discrimination in Bulgaria is at a high level and is rather hidden. Very rarely HIV-positive people have the courage to declare their HIV status, which means that we all have to work harder and harder in this direction. – Can we say that HIV/AIDS is no longer a deadly threat? Unfortunately, we cannot say that it is not fatal as there are still many people who continue to end their lives due to what is known as acquired immune deficiency. In 2016 in Bulgaria it was 22 people, and since the beginning of the epidemic there are over 1,000. So it continues to be a deadly disease, but medicine continues to progress more and more. We can’t talk about vaccination or anything like that yet, but what does exist are therapies that maintain and improve the health status of HIV-positive people on a daily basis.After a possible positive result, there are follow-up tests that are confirmatory, but then the colleagues who do the tests will consult the person concerned and guide him to the appropriate steps. NEWS_MORE_BOX – What is the most important thing to know about HIV/AIDS? The information campaigns we are doing on the occasion of December 1 make it clear that there are three ways in which HIV can spread. The first is gender, which in percentage terms is the most common. Currently, over 80% are sexually transmitted. The other way is blood, and the third is mother-child. But there, with the advancement of medicine, there is a very small prevalence rate. The other thing that is important to say is that there is discrimination against people living with HIV. – In many cases, these people find it difficult to socialize and cannot find a job. Are you working towards discrimination? Our slogan that we usually use is: “Embrace doesn’t kill, discrimination does.” We at the Bulgarian Red Cross and Youth Red Cross are constantly working in the direction of reducing discrimination in Bulgaria by different groups, on different topics. On the one hand, we are trying to raise people’s awareness of how HIV spreads and how it would not lead to infection if your colleague is seropositive. But discrimination in Bulgaria is at a high level and is rather hidden. Very rarely HIV-positive people have the courage to declare their HIV status, which means that we all have to work harder and harder in this direction. – Can we say that HIV/AIDS is no longer a deadly threat? Unfortunately, we cannot say that it is not fatal as there are still many people who continue to end their lives due to what is known as acquired immune deficiency. In 2016, in Bulgaria, it was 22 people, and since the beginning of the epidemic, there are more than 1,000. So it continues to be a deadly disease, but medicine continues to progress more and more. We can’t talk about vaccination or anything like that yet, but what does exist are therapies that maintain and improve the health status of HIV-positive people on a daily basis.which we usually use is: “Hugging doesn’t kill, discrimination does”. We at the Bulgarian Red Cross and Youth Red Cross are constantly working in the direction of reducing discrimination in Bulgaria by different groups, on different topics. On the one hand, we are trying to raise people’s awareness of how HIV spreads and how it would not lead to infection if your colleague is seropositive. But discrimination in Bulgaria is at a high level and is rather hidden. Very rarely HIV-positive people have the courage to declare their HIV status, which means that we all have to work harder and harder in this direction. – Can we say that HIV/AIDS is no longer a deadly threat? Unfortunately, we cannot say that it is not fatal as there are still many people who continue to end their lives due to what is known as acquired immune deficiency. In 2016, in Bulgaria, it was 22 people, and since the beginning of the epidemic, there are more than 1,000. So it continues to be a deadly disease, but medicine continues to progress more and more. We can’t talk about vaccination or anything like that yet, but what does exist are therapies that maintain and improve the health status of HIV-positive people on a daily basis.which we usually use is: “Hugging doesn’t kill, discrimination does”. We at the Bulgarian Red Cross and Youth Red Cross are constantly working in the direction of reducing discrimination in Bulgaria by different groups, on different topics. On the one hand, we are trying to raise people’s awareness of how HIV spreads and how it would not lead to infection if your colleague is seropositive. But discrimination in Bulgaria is at a high level and is rather hidden. Very rarely HIV-positive people have the courage to declare their HIV status, which means that we all have to work harder and harder in this direction. – Can we say that HIV/AIDS is no longer a deadly threat? Unfortunately, we cannot say that it is not fatal as there are still many people who continue to end their lives due to what is known as acquired immune deficiency. In 2016, in Bulgaria, it was 22 people, and since the beginning of the epidemic, there are more than 1,000. So it continues to be a deadly disease, but medicine continues to progress more and more. We can’t talk about vaccination or anything like that yet, but what does exist are therapies that maintain and improve the health status of HIV-positive people on a daily basis.