Battle against AIDS continues

Patricia Settles, top center, a senior community health worker at Hennepin County Medical Center, played a game with Andrew Minor, left, of Minneapolis, at a World AIDS Day resource fair at HCMC on Monday. The quiz tested knowledge about HIV/AIDS. Left, Joshua Conrade, an HIV outreach coordinator at the Aliveness Project, a direct-service provider for HIV/AIDS patients, manned a booth at the fair. Other HCMC staffers attending the fair included, below, from left: Tony Yanni, Camille Evans, a medical assistant at HCMC'S Positive Care Center for HIV/AIDS patients, Hank Jensen and Jackie Zurn.

World AIDS Day, which began in 1988, aims to educate people about the disease to help prevent its spread. According to the Minnesota Department of Health, about 300 Minnesotans were diagnosed with AIDS every year in the past decade. The department stresses that testing and early detection are crucial.