All it takes is one mistake for a life to be altered forever.

Unfortunately for untold numbers of people across the globe, that mistake resulted in them acquiring the AIDS virus.

Spread primarily by way of unprotected sex, the sharing of needles or transmission of body fluids like blood and breast milk, AIDS is the final stage of HIV infection in which a person’s immune system has weakened to the point where it has difficulty fighting other ailments in the human body.

Declared many years ago as a pandemic by the World Health Organization (WHO), millions lose their fight against the disease, which remains without a cure.

Knowing the challenges those with AIDS face are real, those seeking a cure for the disease made it their goal to confront the pandemic, standing together in observance of World AIDS Day.

Held Dec. 1 every year since 1988, the day has been used as an international call to arms of sorts, all in hope of gathering information that could one day bring the debilitating disease to its knees.

“While we have come a long way since 1988, there is still a lot of work to be done,” said Tracey Jackson, executive director of Piedmont Care, a Spartanburg-based nonprofit organization providing HIV/AIDS care, prevention and advocacy to residents of Cherokee, Spartanburg and Union counties. “Each of us has something to contribute — from standing up against stigma and discrimination, to educating ourselves about HIV prevention, from knowing our status to learning more about the commitments our leaders have made.”

Ceremonies and vigils were held at numerous locations in the Upstate, in addition to local health departments providing HIV/AIDS tests at their offices statewide.

According to Dr. Wayne Duffus of the S.C. Department of Health and Environmental Control (DHEC), 14,000 Palmetto State residents are known to be living with HIV/AIDS, with the state health agency estimating a new HIV infection occurs every nine hours.

The Kaiser Family Foundation ranked South Carolina ninth nationally in total number of HIV infections and 10th in regard to AIDS cases earlier this year. African Americans comprise approximately 72 percent of S.C.’s annual number of HIV/AIDS cases, though only representing approximately one-third of its population.

Cherokee County, like others statewide is not immune, with 114 HIV cases and 81 AIDS cases diagnosed here, according to a recent DHEC surveillance report.

Those who do not know their HIV status account for more than half of all new HIV infections, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, with most not feeling any symptoms of the disease in its early stages.

“Every county in the state has residents living with HIV, but South Carolinians remain unaware of their HIV status because they have not received an HIV test,” Duffus said. “... Most people in the early stages of HIV infection have no symptoms. Early diagnosis can link people to services that will help them stay healthy longer, benefit most from treatment, reduce costly hospital visits and help prevent transmission to others.”

For more information on HIV/AIDS and other sexually transmitted diseases, call DHEC’s hotline at 1-800-322-AIDS, or visit the state health agency’s Web site at www.scdhec.gov/stdhiv.