BASSETERRE, St. Kitts – A number of students of the American Medical Students Association (AMSA) from the Windsor University School of Medicine earlier today (Nov. 25) made a short but significant presentation on HIV/AIDS Awareness to students of the Cayon High School.
The presentation was co-delivered by Rocky Khanna and Dylan MC Aneney, the former who explained the difference between HIV and AIDS to the students and gave them statistics of the people living with HIV/AIDS from 2007 to present.
According to Khanna, the first reported AIDS case in the Federation of St. Kitts and Nevis was in 1984 and the most affected age group is within 35 to 39 years.
He also informed the students how the disease is acquired, what it does to the body, how it weakens and breaks down one’s body, the functions of the immune system and the different cells that protect the body from diseases.
In MC Aneney’s presentation, he spoke about the different ways of treating HIV/AIDS and the different viruses that could be caught if a person is HIV positive.
He told the students that it is important to help persons living with HIV/AIDS, as they are often discriminated and rejected by their friends and loved ones.
“Hugging someone doesn’t give you AIDS,” MC Aneney said while embracing another student.
He went on to share with the students various ways by which one could to get HIV/AIDS; ways such as unprotected sex, blood transfusion and childbirth. He also told them about some of the ways to prevent the disease, such as using condoms, avoiding intravenous drugs, handling blood and bodily fluids but, most importantly, abstinence.
The medical students also encouraged them not to discriminate and to help spread the awareness amongst their families and friends.
At the end of the presentation, the students where given the opportunity to ask questions, and Guidance Counsellor Noline Blanchard thanked the Windsor students for their presence and said they would take what they learned and put them into practice.
