Here’s question seven in our lead-up to World AIDS Day on Dec. 1.

Remember when you answer each day’s HIV/AIDS question correctly, you are eligible to win a free CD – your choice of either Portable Sounds by tobyMac or Beyond Measure by Jeremy Camp. We’ll randomly choose a winner each day from the correct answers.

The answer to yesterday’s question is false.

ART is not a cure for HIV; rather ART prevents the virus from replicating in the body. By stopping HIV from making copies of itself, less virus occurs in the body, which in turn allows the immune system (T cells) to rebuild itself. A stronger immune system can then defend the body and keep a person fairly healthy.

Source: www.cdc.gov/hiv/topics/treatment/index.htm, November 2008

Dr. Matt Rindge, assistant professor of Religious Studies at Gonzaga University and a Compassion Child Advocate, spoke at our National Advocates Conference in October. In his message, he shared two observations about Jesus’ ministry.

1. The primary effect of Jesus’ healings was to include social outcasts into community.

   Jesus’ healings restored outcasts to community by removing the obstacle that made them outcasts. By eating with outcasts, Jesus welcomed and accepted them just as they were.

   With the temple incident He critiqued a system/structure that excluded outcasts on the basis of their race.

2. Jesus touched those whom He healed. He was willing to get dirty and even become unclean by touching them.
• Lepers (Mark 1:40–45)
• Bleeding / Hemorrhaging Woman (Mark 5:24b-34)
• Jairus’ Daughter (Mark 5:22-24, 35-43)
• Physically Disabled (Mark 2:1-12; 3:1-6; 7:32-37; 10:46-52)

As Compassion Child Advocates we are critical in the work of restoring social outcasts — children in poverty — to community. While I can’t say that I’ve ever healed anybody in Jesus’ name (I’ve tried), I do believe that Jesus is bringing healing through our advocacy — a healing that gives children a voice and that begins to take the poverty out of them.

What I’m especially convicted by is Rindge’s second observation about Jesus’ physical touch. Jesus got dirty, even unclean, according to Jewish law, by doing so.

I confess that a lot of my advocacy hasn’t gone that far.

Wess Stafford, our President and CEO, regularly shares that his mission is to “comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable.”

I love this statement. What’s also true is that the comfortable may afflict you right back. They did Jesus when they denounced Him for reaching out to social outcasts. And if my advocacy doesn’t result in me being marginalized myself, it’s lacking.

As you “speak up for those who cannot speak for themselves,” are you encountering resistance?

If you are, it’s probably because you look a lot like Jesus.

Here’s question six in our lead-up to World AIDS Day on Dec. 1.

Remember when you answer each day’s HIV/AIDS question correctly, you are eligible to win a free CD – your choice of either Portable Sounds by tobyMac or Beyond Measure by Jeremy Camp. We’ll randomly choose a winner each day from the correct answers.

The answer to yesterday’s question is false.

HIV can be passed from a mother to her child in three ways: during pregnancy, during childbirth, or through the breast milk. Even though children may not be infected when they are born, they can still be infected later through their mother’s breast milk.

Simple drug interventions, however, can prevent mother-to-child transmission, which can greatly reduce the overall rate of HIV transmission.

Source: The Skeptic’s Guide to the Global AIDS Crisis by Dale Hanson Bourke (Colorado Springs, Colo.: Authentic Books, 2006), p. 15

Here’s question five in our lead-up to World AIDS Day on Dec. 1.

Remember when you answer each day’s HIV/AIDS question correctly, you are eligible to win a free CD – your choice of either Portable Sounds by tobyMac or Beyond Measure by Jeremy Camp. We’ll randomly choose a winner each day from the correct answers.

The answer to Friday’s question is 1,000.

During 2007, an average of 1,000 children worldwide became infected each day with HIV, the vast majority of them newborns. Many people living in poverty are never tested and are unaware of their HIV positive status, thus increasing the rate of transmission. An important focus of our AIDS Initiative is the prevention of mother-to-child transmission.

Source: 2008 Report on the Global AIDS Epidemic Executive Summary, pg.8

Here’s question four in our lead-up to World AIDS Day on Dec. 1.

Remember when you answer each day’s HIV/AIDS question correctly, you are eligible to win a free CD – your choice of either Portable Sounds by tobyMac or Beyond Measure by Jeremy Camp. We’ll randomly choose a winner each day from the correct answers.

The answer to Wednesday’s question is yes; a person with AIDS always has HIV.

HIV is the virus that causes AIDS.

A person may have HIV for many years without developing AIDS. An HIV-positive person is considered to have AIDS only when his or her white blood cell (CD4) count drops below the 200-350 range. In fact, until then, a person with HIV may not show symptoms of the infection.

However, an HIV-infected person is still able to transmit the disease to others and may develop AIDS at any time.

Here’s question three in our lead-up to World AIDS Day on Dec. 1.

Remember when you answer each day’s HIV/AIDS question correctly, you are eligible to win a free CD – your choice of either Portable Sounds by tobyMac or Beyond Measure by Jeremy Camp. We’ll randomly choose a winner each day from the correct answers.

Of the more than 2 million deaths worldwide in 2007 caused by AIDS, 72 percent of those occurred in sub-Saharan Africa.

That statistic shows the devastating toll AIDS is taking on the continent of Africa.

Source: 2008 Report on the Global AIDS Epidemic,Executive Summary, pp. 5, 18, http://www.unaids.org

Here’s question two in our lead up to World AIDS Day on Dec. 1.

Remember when you answer each day’s HIV/AIDS question correctly, you are eligible to win a free CD – your choice of either Portable Sounds by tobyMac or Beyond Measure by Jeremy Camp. We’ll randomly choose a winner each day from the correct answers.

HIV infections are found throughout the world, and developing countries are particularly vulnerable to the devastation caused by HIV and AIDS.

In poverty-stricken countries, many people do not understand the risk of HIV or how to prevent it. Once infected, they do not have the same access to treatment as do those suffering from the disease in the developing world.

Source: The Skeptic’s Guide to the Global AIDS Crisis by Dale Hanson Bourke (Colorado Springs, Colo.: Authentic Books, 2006), p. 9