New Website Aims at "Getting to Zero" on HIV

In the UK, AmmoVibes spent the 25th Annual World AIDS Day educating people about HIV, in their attempt to get to zero: zero new infections, zero discrimination and zero AIDS-related deaths. Co-founder Miguel Rodriguez is one of the founders of Ammo and is happy to be a part of the push to getting to zero. EDGE spoke with him on what they are doing to reach their goal.

"Since before Ammo began we've believed sexual health and pleasure as elements of a happy and fulfilled adult life," said Rodriguez. "As a result, we try to do what we can to help. We decided to direct our efforts towards World AIDS Day because we realized how little attention is given to it these days."

The graph below is a Google Trends graph that shows how reporting of the issue has gone down over the last decade. Rodriguez said that it would be great to see a graph like the one below if death and contraction rates were following the same trend -- but they're not. Only a third of people affected by the virus around the world have access to antiretroviral therapies leaving millions of people to face the hardship of AIDS.

Ammo worked together with Pureblue, a digital agency based in London, to create the website graphics. Once they agreed on the vision, they pulled everything else together for Ammo and created what you see now, checking in along the way to make sure it was what they had in mind. Rodriguez hopes the graphics will help people understand what we need to do to get to zero new infections and deaths.

"People spend a lot of time talking about a cure, but with so few gaining access to antiretrovirals now, the ability to gain access to a future cure is far from certain," he said. "The most powerful tool we have is education. Education reduces infection and removes discrimination."

According to Kaiser Family Foundation figures, in 2011 25 percent of Americans incorrectly believed that HIV could be transmitted by sharing a drinking glass with someone who's HIV-positive. It's that lack of education on the subject that leads to particularly nasty discrimination and victimization.

In addition, said Rodriguez, very few pregnant women know to go for early testing. If something is found early enough with the right treatments it's possible to avoid passing the virus onto the baby.

Although Getting to Zero is not about money, they do encourage people to invest in HIV education and services, saying that the main charities are doing great jobs, on limited budgets, to "increase awareness, invest in research and make antiretrovirals available no matter your income -- but they need more support. The solution is never simple, but those are the building blocks."

The website was created to raise awareness on all these themes. It gives basic information about HIV and AIDS to those people not familiar with it and also inspires people to donate to the charities they have selected that invest in education, research and support.

"Ammo is not a charity, but we do believe strongly in sexual health," said Rodriguez. "That's why at the bottom of the page there's a large donation button linking through to a charity that we've vetted and are proud to suggest our visitors support. Each charity has its own individual goals, but they're all aligned to reducing the 1.5 million figure -- the number of people that are dying of AIDS-related diseases each year."

With your help, Getting to Zero hopes to put HIV back in the public consciousness, so that people better understand why the issue is so important and donate to charities that help end the AIDS epidemic.

For more information or to see their interactive HIV timeline, visit http://www.ammovibes.com/aids-awareness/