Health Minute Vol. 1

Sep 10, 2015 | Health

Welcome to the Health Minute

My name is Dr. Lisa Whitty.  I am a board certified plastic surgeon and founder of Chicks With MDs, a health based think tank that focuses on continued care, education and empowerment of patients through up to date health news and information, in addition to providing online resources and live lectures nation wide and globally.

Today’s topic is HIV/AIDS.

I chose this topic as the first in this series because of the profound and devastating effects of this disease on every community, particularly among people of color, lower income and the gay communities.

Although this disease has been known to us since the early 1980’s and there are now many disease-modifying drugs that make it possible to live long and well with this illness, there is still a tremendous number of new cases.

The Current U.S. statistics report that there are 1.2 million people living with HIV/AIDS. 1 in 7 people, 14%, are unaware that they are infected. In 2012-there were 48,000 new cases.

Critical Facts of The BLACK POPULATION:

12% of the total population in the U.S. However:

  • 44% of New HIV Cases
  • 43% of People Living with HIV
  • 48% of the Deaths of People with HIV/AIDS

Why is this still a crisis in today’s world? Unprotected Sex and IV drug Abuse

What can we do?

Protected Sex. Even if you are already HIV positive, protect your partner and protect yourself from other STDs.

Seek help for drug addiction

Change Your Life Style

  • Limit Sexual Partners
  • Use condoms
  • PrEP  (Pre Exposure Prophylaxis) taken within 3 days of HIV exposure to reduce the risk of contracting the virus

Get Treated

  • Reduces Level Of Virus
  • Reduces The Risk Of Transmitting The Virus To Someone Else
  • Reduces The Risk of Transmitting The Virus To Your Unborn Child

What resources do we have?

 

As always, you can visit chickswithmds.com or our Facebook page, Chicks With MDs, where there will always be up to date resources and links to websites and phone numbers to get help. It’s much better to know and to live well, than to hide and injure yourself and others. There are no judgments here, only information and help.

Thank you for taking the time to visit and I look forward to talking to you again next week with another important topic in health care, here at Chicks With MDs.

Take Care. Stay Well. Be Safe.

Dr. Lisa Whitty, Founder & CEO, Chicks With MDs.

http://www.cdc.gov/hiv/statistics/basics/ataglance.html