WORLD AIDS DAY 2011 is upon us.  And it's a day that every country possible participates in some form of action/education for HIV/AIDS awareness.

TheYBF.com is doing its part today....

World AIDS Day is observed each year on December 1. This year's theme is "Leading with Science, Uniting for Action". Aids.gov is your 1 stop shop for EVERYTHING you need to know about prevention, taking care of yourself if you have HIV/AIDS, how to educate others on the issue, and everything in between.

Today, women account for more than 1 in 4 new HIV/AIDS cases in the United States, according to WomensHealth.Gov. Of these newly infected women, about 2 in 3 are African-American. Most of these women got HIV from having unprotected sex with a man.

A few staggering stats from the Women's Health website:

AIDS is now the leading cause of death for African-American women ages 25–34. And African-American women are more than 21 times as likely to die from HIV/AIDS as non-Hispanic white women. Some reasons why African-American women are affected by HIV/AIDS more than women of other races include:

Poverty — One in 4 African-American women lives in poverty, which is strongly linked to HIV risk. People living in poverty also get lower-quality health care in general, which can mean advancing from HIV infection to AIDS more quickly.
Sexually transmitted infections (STIs) — HIV is most commonly spread to women through sexual contact. Untreated STIs that break the skin, such as genital herpes, give HIV easy access into the bloodstream. African-American women have high rates of many STIs.

Incarceration of African-American men — Based on current rates of incarceration, nearly one-third of all African-American men will enter prison during their lifetimes. Cycling in and out of the prison system leads to fewer available African-American men in the community to have long-term, faithful relationships and a greater chance of having multiple partners over time. Living in prison also exposes many men to risk factors for HIV. This raises a man's risk of getting HIV in prison and passing HIV to his female partner at home.

In recognition of World AIDS Day, President Obama will speak at 2:30p ET an event hosted by the ONE Campaign and (RED) at George Washington University.  You can watch the whole event live on YouTube.com/TheONECampaign.

And by the way, Get Tested.

How are you participating today?