Your purchase at SaveTheWorldShop.com supports those who suffer from AIDS and other terrible diseases.

Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome, more commonly known as AIDS is a disease of the human immune system and is caused by the Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV). This disease drastically reduces the effectiveness of the immune system and leaves the patients vulnerable to other infections and tumor. AIDS is transmitted through direct contact of a mucous membrane or the bloodstream with a bodily fluid containing HIV, such as blood, semen, vaginal fluid, pre-seminal fluid, and breast milk. This transmission could happen through anal, vaginal or oral sex, blood transfusion, contaminated hypodermic needles, exchange between mother and baby during pregnancy, childbirth, breastfeeding or other exposure to one of the above bodily fluids.

The origin of AIDS dates back to 1981, when the US Centers for Disease Control detected this in five homosexual men in Los Angeles. In the beginning, the CDC did not have an official name for this disease but later the discoverer of the HIV originally named the virus.

The symptoms of AIDS are conditions that do not normally develop in individuals with healthy immune systems. Most of these conditions are infections caused by bacteria, viruses, fungi and parasites that are normally controlled by the elements of the immune system that HIV damages. People with AIDS also have an increased risk of developing several cancers such as cervical cancer and cancers of the immune system known as lymphomas. AIDS is the ultimate clinical consequence of infection with HIV. Acute HIV infection usually progresses over time to clinical latent HIV infection and then to early symptomatic HIV infection and later to AIDS. The median time of progression from HIV infection to AIDS is nine to ten years, and the median survival time after developing AIDS is only 9.2 months. However, the rate of clinical disease progression varies widely between individuals, from two weeks up to 20 years. Many factors affect the rate of progression. These include factors that influence the body's ability to defend against HIV such as the infected person's general immune function. Older people have weaker immune systems, and therefore have a greater risk of rapid disease progression than younger people. There are a number HIV and AIDS misconceptions. Few of the most common are that AIDS can spread through casual contact, that sexual intercourse with a virgin will cure AIDS, and that HIV can infect only homosexual men and drug users.

AIDS is now a pandemic. As of 2009, the World Health Organization (WHO) estimated that there are 33.3 million people worldwide living with HIV/AIDS, with 2.6 million new HIV infections per year and 1.8 million annual deaths due to AIDS. In 2007, UNAIDS estimated 33.2 million people worldwide had AIDS that year; AIDS killed 2.1 million people in the course of that year, including 330,000 children, and 76% of those deaths occurred in sub-Saharan Africa. According to UNAIDS 2009 report, worldwide some 60 million people have been infected, with some 25 million deaths, and 14 million orphaned children in southern Africa alone since the epidemic began.

Although treatments for AIDS and HIV can slow the course of the disease, there is no known cure or vaccine. Antiretroviral treatment reduces both the mortality and the morbidity of HIV infection, but these drugs are expensive and routine access to antiretroviral medication is not available in all countries. Due to the difficulty in treating HIV infection, preventing infection is a key aim in controlling the AIDS pandemic, with health organizations promoting safe sex and needle-exchange programs in attempts to slow the spread of the virus. One way to change risky behavior is health education. Several studies have shown the positive impact of education and health literacy on cautious sex behavior. Education works only if it leads to higher health literacy and general cognitive ability.

With such alarming mortality rate and rare chances of cure, there is nothing much one can do to reduce the spread of the disease. However, few of us who want to make a difference can still do our bit. Our collective endeavor lies in fighting our foe – AIDS- till it is relinquished. It’s come from the no-man’s land to fetch its prey. Global statistics are disheartening; that we must lose zillions of precious lives- both young and old- to a miniscule virus. Let us keep the humanitarian candle burning alive in us and do our bit to dispel the shock, taboo and reservations that accompany AIDS and AIDS afflicted patients. It is their birthright to live with as much grace and dignity as any of us who feel falsely “safe” and thank the superpower that we are not one among ‘them’ – humiliating and dishonoring the community as it is. They do not need our sympathy, but our empathy. Let us instead walk toward rekindling hope, join hands in camaraderie and “Save The World” with some charitable purchases from the shop like watches and bracelets, the proceedings of which would go to supporting the cause.