The European University of the Atlantic (UNEATLANTICO) once again hosts the HIV Awareness Day on behalf of the Cantabrian Citizens’ Association Against AIDS (ACCAS) with the aim of raising awareness among its students about the importance of getting tested, the impact of HIV and AIDS on health.
The awareness day offered UNEATLANTICO students an information table with explanatory brochures and preventive material. In addition, for interested students, they had the opportunity to take a free and confidential HIV rapid test.
On behalf of ACCAS, different workers visited us to support both the information table and the HIV tests. On behalf of the association, Tais Gómez, Rim Santiago, Miriam Bustillo, Bárbara Bretones, Virginia García and Olaya Velasco were present.
The human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) affects the immune system, weakening the defense system against infections and certain types of cancer. According to data from the World Health Organization (WHO), 630,000 people died of this disease in 2022. So it is a disease that currently continues to have a great impact on the world and it is extremely important to raise awareness about it and promote protection from it.
In this sense, ACCAS has developed this campaign to raise awareness about the importance of getting tested for HIV, as well as to offer all the necessary information about the disease and its transmission routes. Their campaign contains the characteristics of: “reaching out to the young population, carrying out the screening tests and informing and, in case there is any positive, starting treatment and helping people.”
It should be noted that in November the tenth edition of the European Testing Week was held, an extremely important week in which it seeks to raise awareness of the disease among young people and in which UNEATLANTICO joined forces with ACCAS on the university campus.