Date: c. 1980
Owner: National Library of Medicine
Source Type: Images
This AIDS awareness poster was distributed in Uruguay with the support of the Pan American Health Organization. The caption reads: "This HIV carrier does not have AIDS, but she can transmit it." It goes on to describe how someone can remain healthy and attractive for several years while carrying the HIV virus before any symptoms of AIDS appear. It then encourages people to use condoms to prevent the spread of this disease.
The fight against HIV/AIDS has become a major initiative of the PAHO. According to their estimates, 3-5 million individuals in the Americas are currently infected with HIV, and the majority of these are these are people living in poverty, especially women and children. The number of people infected with the disease in Latin America and the Caribbean is still rising. The PAHO's current goal is to halt the spread of HIV by 2015 and, through administering treatment, begin to reverse the epidemic.
Although HIV/AIDS has only become an international health issue in the last few decades, the PAHO's efforts to stem its growth have been reminiscent of earlier campaigns against contagious diseases. Preventing the spread of HIV has been the primary goal, just as the campaign against Yellow Fever stressed containment over one hundred years ago. Yet the social values of the ISB's/PAHO's efforts have changed significantly over the last century; whereas the initial goal was to ensure that infectious diseases did not impede commerce, the health of women and children has now become a principle aim.
Reference: Regional HIV/STI Plan for the Health Sector, 2006-2015. Washington, D.C. Pan American Health Organization, 2005.
CITATION: Es portadora vih no tiene sida, pero lo contagia. United States National Library of Medicine, National Institutes of Health. Order #: C01055.
DIGITAL ID: 13048
