I have to admit that when I first arrived here at Designers Against AIDS, I didn’t know much about HIV, let alone about the ways you can get infected. We saw the topic in a lot of courses at school, but naturally we saw a lot of other things too, so it kind of got swallowed up among the rest. That’s sad, considering HIV is something you really have to protect yourself from and I’m pretty sure that some young people still believe that condoms should only be used when you don’t want to get yourself a mini-me.

Did you know for instance that there are 6 different ways to get HIV when you don't know enough about it?

Numero uno: you thought your love was monogamous. Sadly, it’s always possible that your partner chose another bed to 'sleep' in every now and then -even if it was one time only. Make sure you communicate about it! Secondly, you can think you always wear a condom, but going out and drinking alcohol can change your behaviour. Just remember to be careful when drinking. Another way to get HIV is because the love of your life didn’t know he or she was HIV-positive (currently this is the case with at least 1 out of 4 seropositive people). The only way to prevent this is to get tested before you discard those condoms out of your bedroom. Number four, you may think that your bed partner would tell you about HIV. But when it comes to sex, some people just don’t want to talk about certain things and sometimes this also means lying or shutting their mouth about their status. Also, some gay men state that when they are on top during sex, they can’t get HIV. One in five men who were recently infected with the virus were in fact on top. The last way to get HIV is because you think it can’t happen to you. Unfortunately, everyone is at risk. So read this article once or twice to remind yourself of that fact.

This is one of the reasons why I think Designers Against AIDS is fighting for a really good cause. They want young people to know these kinds of things, because- admit it- we probably all fell asleep at least once during a biology lesson and it might just have been the one about HIV.