• Around the world today there are nearly 40 million people living with HIV or AIDS.
  
• Last year over 5 million people were newly infected with HIV. More than 50% of them were aged between 15 and 24.
  
• Women are more susceptible to HIV than men.
  
• Once someone is infected with HIV, they're infected for life.
  
• HIV can be prevented.
  
• While most of us have heard of HIV and AIDS, there are still many who still don’t know the basic facts about what HIV is, and how it can be transmitted.

HIV (the Human Immunodeficiency Virus) is a preventable disease that attacks the body’s immune system. Over time HIV can lead to AIDS (Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome), which cannot be cured.

Once infected with HIV, a person has it for life. As the disease progresses, people can die from a range of infections caused by their weakened immune system. Medication can slow the progress of the disease, but these drugs are expensive, not available to most people in developing countries, and unfortunately are not a cure.

You can’t always tell by looking at a person if they are infected. HIV is a slow acting virus. The majority of infected people look healthy and feel well for years after infection. Some don’t even know they have the virus. But if a person has HIV, they can spread it, whether they know it or not.

HIV is spread through unprotected sex (intercourse without a condom), transfusions of unscreened blood, contaminated injection needles and from an infected woman to her child during pregnancy, childbirth and breastfeeding.

But the most important thing to remember is that HIV is preventable.

Raising awareness of how HIV is transmitted is one of the best ways we can stop the epidemic and save potentially millions of lives. With the right kind of knowledge, more people can make informed decisions and protect themselves, and others, from the risk of infection.

By empowering young people and helping with the fight against stigma, by changing attitudes, breaking taboos and smashing ignorance, more people will be able to live a safer, longer life.

The money raised through STOP HIV: SPRAY TO CHANGE ATTITUDES will go towards raising awareness about HIV and AIDS amongst the general public, and will support programmes run with young people around the world, helping equip the most vulnerable and at-risk to stay safe, and alive.

• Don’t be pressured into doing anything you don’t want to do. You don't have to have sex, and it’s not true, everyone else isn’t doing it.
  
• If you don’t have any condoms, don’t have sex.
  
• Discuss protection with your partner before you have sex.
  
• Become familiar with how to use condoms.
  
• Have a supply of condoms ready if you choose to have sex.
  
• Learn about how infections are spread, what symptoms to look for, and where to go for help if you are worried.
  
• If you think you might have had unprotected sex, or might have an infection, then go to a sexual health clinic. It’s important, and it’s in confidence.