One of the major health issues facing the world — and not only the developing world — continues to be HIV and AIDS. Any health practitioner needs to be aware of the current research and findings related to HIV/AIDS and what is being done in this field- and so do others working in the field. The epidemic continues to be one with dire consequences for global health and one that needs to be addressed. Here are 50 open courseware clases, research papers and other sources that can help you learn more about HIV and AIDS: http://onlinenursepractitionerprograms.com/2009/50-essential-open-courseware-classes-research-papers-to-learn-about-hiv-aids/ With thanks to Y-Peer

Over the years, health website TheBody.com has received more than 100,000 questions in their "Ask the Experts" forums from people agonizing over a possible HIV exposure. There's no doubt the uncertainty you might feel about a possible exposure can be terrifying. The good news is that it's almost impossible to be infected with HIV while just going about your day. Still feeling jittery? Visit http://www.thebody.com/content/63213/ten-common-fears-about-hiv-transmission.html for a rundown of some common fears about HIV exposure that, in fact, carry virtually zero risk. And just to be sure: always play safe!

In December of last year we published our first book 'Designers against AIDS: The First Decade!' and we're proud to announce that by now, almost 2000 copies have been sold worldwide. In fact, on amazon.com they have only 3 copies left- for only $45 and free shipping. As many of you know, sales of the book benefit our new education center and besides the story behind Designers against AIDS and photos of our best campaigns, the book also shows work about pure beauty from over 100 talented international artists (such as Veruschka von Lehndorff, featured here) and pop stars alike. Each book also contains a large poster by German band Tokio Hotel, who have supported us since the start- as have their many fans. Get it or regret it ;-)!

The DAA Festival T-shirt -as worn by top models such as Josh Beech and Hannelore Knuts- is still going strong 3 years after we designed it. Witnessing this photo of models after a fashion show in Berlin last week, with one of them proudly showing the huge DAA logo on his chest. Well done! We still have a few of these T-shirts for sale, made Fair Trade of organic cotton (25€ plus shipping & handling). Contact info@designersagainstaids.com for more details.

MTV Switzerland reminds you to always be safe with a very cool campaign made by Grey Worldwide. Well, you can forgive the characters form these comics not being prepared for the situation, but unless something like that happens to you- use your brain and use a condom :) We spend this nice long weekend exploring the city but also looking at other campaigns designed for young people. So many creative ideas for the common safe sex message!       

The second and last day of the conference was also a great success! It started fairly early in the morning with a walk across the Brooklyn bridge - on the way saying good morning to Lady Liberty - into lower Manhattan and straight into the financial district, to Wall street to be specific. GBCHealth clearly knows where to organize a conference: in the beautiful venue Cipriani, looking like the palace of a rich Roman emperor. Well chosen if you ask me, since the palace was equipped with everything you need to film an episode of the Oprah Winfrey show. And again today, there were many interesting sessions on how to mobilize business for a healthier world. For one, as Yashashree Gurjar - CEO of the Avantha Foundation and Group Head of Corporate Social Responsibility of the Avantha Group, said: "Businesses can't succeed if societies fail". That seemed to be one of the main messages of the day. In the words of Sarah Brown - President of PiggyBankKids and the wife of the former UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown - : "doing good is now finally a part of doing well". Conclusion: we need to invest in developing countries to gain better global health outcomes. What made the day even better and very much inspiring, next to the delicious healthy food, were the moving presentations and stories by award winning actresses Whoopi Goldberg, Sarah Jessica Parker, Kim Cattrall and Sigourney Weaver as well as speeches from Former Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and Member of Parliament Gordon Brown and his wife Sarah Brown, Former Brazilian president Fernando Cardoso, Kenneth Cole, Chairman and Chief Creative Officer of his own Kenneth Cole Productions and many successful business men and women with a passion for doing good such as Sir Richard Branson, Ted Turner and Cynthia Caroll. Not to forget the brilliant performances by Yvonne Chaka Chaka, Natalie Merchant and Vusi Mahlasela. I think it became clear that 10 years of GBC was just the beginning of the battle for a healthier world. The recipe seems quite simple: local governments and communities, schools, NGOs and large money-making companies all added together - with a little flavour of sex and the city. And some Designers Against Aids of course. Walking the Brooklyn bridge into Manhattan  Beautiful Kim Cattrall on stage(More pictures later!) 

What a day! It was an interesting but slightly exhausting day at the 30th floor of the Thomson Reuters building at Times Square: no less than five hour-and-a-half sessions on how to engage business in addressing global health issues. What possible role can the private sector play in the fight against diseases such as tuberculosis, malaria and HIV/AIDS? And what can we, as an NGO, learn from the business sector? Two of many questions that were dealt with today and they all come down to one thing: we are in this together and only if you team up - governments, the private sector and the NGOs - we can really make a change. As Ban Ki-Moon, UN Secretary-General, wrote in his welcoming letter in the program guide: "Together, we can amplify the impact that businesses around the globe have in addressing global health challenges and making the world a healthier place." Tomorrow there will be another day of connecting companies, individuals, ideas and knowledge and I'm looking forward to it. As I saw today, there's a lot to be shared, learned and said in order to design the plans for the future. A healthier future. A blurry but still amazing view from the 30th floor A very knowledgeable panel, including Michel Sidibé - UNAIDS Executive Director, on how to reduce the inequities in women's and girls' access to health and opportunity 

This afternoon I arrived in gorgeous and sunny New York City. My first time here, and I am very excited to explore everything. But as you might expect, I am not just here to enjoy the city and what it has to offer: I am here to do some serious business. As a proud member of the Global Business Coalition on HIV/AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria I am here to attend their 10th annual conference. This means a lot of influential and knowledgeable companies and organizations from all around the world come together to discuss current health related issues, and more importantly, how to solve them. I will make sure to keep you posted about my experiences here in the big (and healthy) apple.    

This Saturday, the 21st of May there will be an amazing event & party in the brand new W Hotels' WooBar in Seminyak, Bali. The event will not only feature fashion shows, great performances and a big party - it will also try to raise awareness on what's really important: the HIV/AIDS issue in Bali. Unfortunately the facts don't lie. We've put it all together in a presentation, which will be shown at the event. You can view the presentation here. 

Today is the International Day Against Homophobia, a day that marks the ongoing fight against homophobia all around the world. 21 years ago, on May 17, the World Health Organization removed homosexuality from the list of mental disorders. Always striving for equality, tolerance and respect for all, Designers Against Aids wants to highlight the importance of this campaign. Go to this website and learn more about the Fight Against Homophobia Campaign.

Today I attended the slotzitting of KRAS Globelink Youth Parliament in the chamber of the Flemish parliament. Talented youngsters aged 17-18 from all over Flanders came together to discuss important and hot health related topics. And I was there to represent Designers Against Aids and help these future politicians (or doctors, artists, soccer players..) with their lines of argumentation and ideas to tackle the health problems that were addressed. DAA was asked to contribute to the issue of how to minimize the amount of deathly victims of the HIV/AIDS pandemic in this world. Well, as you might expect: there's not one simple solution to this problem. Fortunately these students turned out to be quite inventive and I was glad to be of help. Together they formed their advice on this topic that they will give to the Belgian government. You probably wonder, and so did I, if those politicians actually listen to the students so after the first session I had a little talk with the chairman of KRAS, Benedict Verbrugge, to ask him this. He told me that Belgian politicians will be given actual advice from the students - and that they do find this very helpful in shaping their future policy and plans. Having started our own Designers Against Aids education center [link] we are well aware of the necessity of teaching (and learning from!) youngsters when it comes to our battle against HIV/AIDS. The power lies in the hands of the future generation, we think. Today was a great example of how to reach out to the young and knowledgeable, not only to give them the information they need and to help them create innovative solutions to large health related issues but also to share our safe sex message to them in an interactive way. Sharing, teaching, learning and having fun at the same time - it sure is possible!   So, from Brussels with love, Wieke  

This week, from the 10th of April until the 17th, the first annual College Couture Week, hosted by student organization College Couture, is taking place at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Illinois, United States. Throughout the week the College Couture team hosts seminars, a modelling competition, runway shows and a couture night out. And the good news is: College Couture not only tries to enlighten students on fashion as a subculture of art, entertainment and everyday life - they also support our mission to raise HIV/AIDS awareness. Funds, as well as awareness, will be raised during the whole week, for example trough the selling of beautiful red roses from Ecuador - which will benefit the running of our first International HIV/AIDS Awareness Education Center. Many thanks to the College Couture team for doing this! Check out their website for more information on all the events or go to their facebook page to become a fan - just like us!  

Tokio Hotel fan Bianca sent us these really cute pictures of her doll, representing the singer of the band Bill Kaulitz (but we think you'd have guessed that yourself) who's wearing a mini version of the Tokio Hotel for Fashion Against Aids T-shirt. Tokio Hotel contributed to Fashion Against Aids in 2009 and they have been very good friends of DAA ever since and so have their fans! Doesn't he look good in his own design?  

  Tomorrow's a big day for DAA: the press launch of the fourth Fashion Against Aids campaign and collection for the media from Belgium and the Netherlands will be held at our headquarters in Antwerp and the names of all participating celebrities will be announced. As you can see in the pictures, we are getting ready for it slowly but surely. It will be an exciting day for all of us, as there will be a lot of press to check out the fresh and unique unisex collection that will be presented- and MTV Holland will be here to film us! On top of that it's the perfect chance for us to show off our beautiful education center, to explain to the press about the work we do and to highlight our collection of customized T-shirts that were made for us by many designers and artists. Story to be continued, so please stay tuned!            DAA - Bejeweled  These four little bears are also excited!

The Designers Against Aids team wearing the exclusive Marc Jacobs x Playboy for DAA - T-shirts: aren't we the happiest bunny crew in the world? To stay in the theme we invited miss April to join us. We're posing in front of a giant photo made by photographer Erwin Olaf. Yes, well spot, you recognize it from our book: the beautiful photo was used for its cover. We are all very happy with our cool tees, and hopefully many of you are of will be too. Get your own in one of the selected Marc by Marc Jacobs stores, or online. Visit www.marcjacobs.com for more information. Don't forget: you'll have a cool T-shirt AND you support us, Designers Against Aids, in our mission!

On the 16th of April everywhere around the globe Tokio Hotel fans will come together to show their love and support for the band: it's the official Tokio Hotel International Day in 2011. In over 50 cities worldwide, events will be held where fans (described by singer Bill Kaulitz as "the best fans in the world") can join together for various activities. One of these events will be held in Trois-Rivières, Quebec, Canada. There, on Saturday the 16th, fans will come together to make pictures, chat, exchange stories, listen to their favourite songs, have fun and show their support for Tokio Hotel. But not only for Tokio Hotel -we are very happy to hear that the fans also support us, Designers Against Aids, again! Ever since the group designed their ‘Rock Hard, F*ck Safe' T-shirt for Fashion Against Aids in 2009 we've been great fans of Bill, Tom, Georg and Gustav and we love the fact that they are always willing to support our cause and carry out the safe sex message that is so important. We would like to wish every TH fan out there a fantastic Tokio Hotel International Day on the 16th of April and we hope that all of you will also help raise money for our new education center, so that we can also invite students from poorer countries who can't pay for their own flights themselves. We from the DAA team agree with Bill: you are the best fans in the world! If you'd like to have more information about the worldwide events, continue reading here. The official Canada Street Team also made a very nice promo video, watch it! 

DAA applauds the New York City Health Department who launched the NYC Condom Finder, a free smartphone app to locate the five nearest venues that distribute free condoms. When using the app you can either determine the nearest location through GPS (global positioning system) or enter an address. The application then provides specific directions to each venue (you can even choose from walking, driving or public transportation directions), the hours of operation for each location, the types of safer sex products available and helpful tips on condom usage. With almost 1,000 condom distribution locations throughout the five boroughs currently accessible through the mobile app, New Yorkers and visitors of the city will find that no matter where they are, they can always be protected from HIV. We encourage cities all over the world to follow the example of the city that never sleeps (but apparently is busy doing other things): distribute free condoms and make them easy to find. Hurray for another smart way to promote safe sex! Want to join the conversation? Go to their facebook page.

If you think you've seen it all when it comes to royal souvenirs, think again because with the wedding of William and Kate coming up, a British souvenir manufacturer launched these priceless condoms, for those among you who want to have safe sex in style. I wonder if William and Kate are playing it safe?

"His penis is so beautiful, I want to knit it a little hat" - Uma Thurman in the movie Prime. Of course a knitten condom is not a correct preservative, but we just thought this little knitten friend is so cute. Do you have D.I.Y. skills? Send us your pictures of your funny, cute condom inspired craft works to: sophie@designersagainstaids.com

We got a lot of nice reactions on our book: from art- and fashionlovers to DAA supporters and fans of the stars that worked with us. Thank you to everyone who showed their appreciation! Here's one of many: a happy book owner, Tokio Hotel fan and DAA supporter, sweet Camila wrote us:   Hi. ♥ It's an amazing book, everytime you pass thru the pages is a new sensation, since every artist that donated photographs left a bit of his or her emotions and feelings in them. To me as Tokio Hotel fan is very exciting to see some of their personal pictures, is a feeling that gets you closer to them. I am very happy to have the chance to own this book, I recommend it to all Tokio Hotel fans.The Tokio Hotel pictures, are great and the poster is beautiful. If you are not a Tokio Hotel fan but like art, this book has to be part of your collection. Thanks, Designers against AIDS - The First Decade. Kisses..♥Camila Votteler.  Do you also have the book? Let us know your thoughts!