Events are being held across Iowa today to remember the hundreds of Iowans who’ve been diagnosed with AIDS and H-I-V and to prevent more people from being infected. As part of World AIDS Day, chapters of the American Red Cross are holding promotional programs statewide.Lyn Laws is the Red Cross’ statewide H-I-V/AIDS Network coordinator who says this year’s theme is “Listen, Learn and Live.” She says many of today’s events in Iowa focus on young people, particularly those under 25, to educate themselves and others about AIDS.Some of today’s events include: the reading of all Iowa AIDS victims names at a fundraiser in Cedar Rapids, distribution of brochures & red ribbon stickers in Des Moines, and Mason City teachers have gotten World AIDS Day kits for running programs today in classrooms. Laws says AIDS has taken a heavy toll in the Hawkeye State. Since numbers have been kept, 11-hundred-92 Iowans have been diagnosed with AIDS and 639 have died. This year alone, 169 H-I-V cases have been diagnosed in Iowa. For more information, the statewide, round-the-clock AIDS hotline is 800-445-AIDS.
