Posted December 10th, 2013
By Kris Powers
December 1st, officially called World AIDS Day, marked the beginning of AIDS Awareness Month.
According to the Aids.gov website, more than one million people are living with HIV and AIDS in the US. One in six people living with HIV are not aware that they have the disease, and one in four new cases of HIV occur among young adults from 13 years of age to 24.
During the month of December, it is common for people to wear the red ribbon which is the global symbol for solidarity with those living with HIV or AIDS. For the last twenty years, World AIDS Day and AIDS Awareness Month have been put in place to remind people of the AIDS crisis and to always remember those who have been lost to HIV/AIDS.
Ed4Career offers a number of courses in our Workforce Compliance Catalog to help further the understanding of HIV and AIDS.
1. HIV & AIDS: An Introduction
HIV is the human immunodeficiency virus. It is the virus that can lead to acquired immune deficiency syndrome, or AIDS. AIDS stands for Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome. Learn more about HIV & AIDS in our introductory course.
2. HIV & AIDS for Healthcare Professionals
This course will help you as a healthcare professional understand HIV/AIDS better as well as the OSHA Guidelines.
Drug abuse and drug addiction have long been linked with the HIV/AIDS epidemic. For many years, it was believed that this was due only to injection drug use and needle sharing. However, research has uncovered the impact that drug use and abuse can have on the spread of HIV/AIDS through the risky behaviors it engenders.
4. HIV & AIDS: Prevalence in Special Populations
The first cases of what would later become known as AIDS were reported in the United States in June of 1981. Since then, 1.7 million people in the U.S. are estimated to have been infected with HIV. This course will explore the prevalence of HIV/AIDS among special populations.
5. HIV & AIDS Testing and Treatment
1 out of 4 people who have HIV don't know it. Testing for HIV has become faster and more convenient and there are many testing options available. Knowing if you have HIV can be essential to your sexual health. And if you know you don't have HIV, you can learn what you need to do to protect yourself and your partner(s) from getting it.
6. HIV & AIDS Prevention for Healthcare Providers
Healthcare personnel are at risk for occupational exposure to bloodborne pathogens, including hepatitis B virus (HBV), hepatitis C virus (HCV), and human immunodeficiency virus (HIV). Exposures occur through needle sticks or cuts from other sharp instruments contaminated with an infected patient's blood or through contact of the eye, nose, mouth, or skin with a patient's blood. Learn about the risks as well as preventative steps that can be taken in the workplace.
7. HIV & AIDS: Women & Pregnancy
Mother-to-child transmission of HIV is when a woman infected with HIV transmits HIV to her baby during pregnancy, during labor and delivery, or by breastfeeding. Perinatal HIV transmission is the most common route of HIV infection in children and is now the source of almost all AIDS cases in children in the United States.
Workers in many industries are regularly exposed to infectious agents. In health care, workers should practice universal precautions to prevent the spread of disease to themselves and others. Workers in other industries, though, can also inadvertently spread disease to customers and patrons. This course discusses infection control techniques that help prevent others from being infected by diseases and illnesses.
People who work in situations where they may be exposed to human blood, like healthcare workers, emergency response personal, lab personnel, and others may be exposed to human blood on a regular basis. Sometimes the blood is infected with bloodborne pathogens like Hepatitis or HIV, posing a risk to the workers. The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) sets several standards regarding worker safety regarding risks from bloodborne pathogens. This course discusses OSHA standards and how workers and employers must follow them.
Enroll now to get the most up to date information on HIV and AIDS. To quote Sir Francis Bacon, “Knowledge is power” (1561-1626), Religious Meditations, Of Heresies, 1597.
http://aids.gov/hiv-aids-basics/hiv-aids-101/statistics/
http://www.wdtv.com/wdtv.cfm?func=view§ion=5-News&item=December-Marks-AIDS-Awareness-Month13087
https://Ed4Career.com/course-list/workforce-compliance
