No Glove No Love

"Since June 5, 1981, HIV, the virus that causes AIDS, has killed more than 25 million people, infected 40 million others and left a legacy of unspeakable loss, hardship, fear and despair."

[...]

"AIDS could kill 31 million people in India and 18 million in China by 2025, according to projections by U.N. population researchers. By then in Africa, where AIDS likely began and where the virus has wrought the most devastation, researchers said the toll could reach 100 million."

[See full article at the link above, at Yahoo news.

Please protect yourself, people. Nobody else is going to do it for you. Condoms are not perfect, but they are absolutely necessary. Don't leave home without one. In the US, you can get condoms for cheap at the public health family planning and planned parenthood clinics. (If you can't afford condoms, imagine how you're going to afford kids!) Do what it takes to take care of yourself, please. We need you, and you need you. HIV takes out young, healthy, good people just like you from Iowa to the Ukraine. It's way more likely to get you than terrorists are. Plus condoms can protect you from herpes and chlamidia, which are both also rampant in the world population of young people now.

On the good-news front for STDs, scientists have recently succeeded in making a vaccine that prevents HPV infection (warts) which causes most of the cervical cancers in women and can be fatal when not treated early. Make sure all the women you know get vaccinnated as soon as it's available, especially your pre-teen girls, because it won't work if you've got the virus already.]