Dallas County is taking a stand against the HIV epidemic, to help contribute to a healthier community and improve our residents’ overall quality of life. And it starts by talking about how we can prevent, treat, and end the HIV epidemic in Dallas County by 2030. See the National HIV/AIDS strategy that will be used to help aid in that mission here. Sure it can be awkward talking about sexual health, but HIV is not a topic we should shy away from. Did you know that you can live a healthy life with HIV? If you didn’t, that’s because we don’t talk enough about HIV. And when we don’t talk about it, we contribute to the growing problem of misinformation and stigmatized behavior. Did you know that 1 in 8 are living with HIV but don’t know it? If you’ve never been tested, then it’s time to change that. In fact, there were 18,739 people living with HIV in Dallas County, with 733 people being newly diagnosed in 2019. For just one county, that’s a significant number.
We can stop new diagnoses by working together. What do you need to do? Get tested. Already been tested? Get your friends and family to join you. Not knowing your status or how to properly protect yourself puts you at risk and in the unknown — and that’s scary. But together as a county, we can join the nationwide movement to educate people about HIV and most importantly, we can keep our pledge to prevent any new diagnoses by 2030. Along with counties in other states, we will share awareness of HIV, how to keep yourself protected, and most crucially, normalize testing.
So, are you ready to help your community? Do it for yourself, do it for your friends and family — whatever your reasoning, take the step to help Dallas County put an end to the HIV epidemic.