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Twenty-five years after AIDS was first detected in the US, communities worldwide still struggle to deal with the virus.
Here in Utah, the number of new HIV cases is on the rise.
Friday is World AIDS Day, but the state and county health departments have events all week to make sure we all get the message.
Health officials urge all of us to reduce high risk behaviors and get tested.
HIV testing is very simple these days. With rapid testing, you get the results in 20 minutes. More people are getting tested, but more people are testing positive, too.
Lynn Meinor of Utah Department of Health: "In Utah we are seeing an increase, specifically in men who have sex with men, and men who have sex with men who inject drugs."
The Salt Lake Valley Health Department today offered free testing. You can easily find a place to get tested across the state throughout the week.
Department officials say they have seen a significant increase of new HIV cases reported in Salt Lake County during the past six months, and even more recently.
Lynn Beltran of Salt Lake Valley Health Department: "In the last two weeks, I've had a dozen new cases come across my desk. That is a significant increase over a two week period compared to other parts of the year."
"Right now we have infections in a lot of people who weren't around during that time. They didn't see the really bad part of the epidemic and there are myths circulating that there's a treatment or a cure."
The Centers for Disease Control estimate as many as one thousand people in Utah do not know they are infected with HIV.
The CDC also has a new recommendation for testing, and that is that everyone should be tested between the ages of 13 and 64 to know their HIV status.
A study released this week projects that AIDS will join heart disease and stroke as the world's leading causes of death within the next 25 years.
