According to scientists there are 237 reasons why we have sex. Amazingly, you don’t need a licence to sex, which is a shame because we’d all be better at it if we had to pass our learners beforehand. Having sex in South Africa is like learning to drive during an F1 race – a wrong move can put you in harms way. Before you drop your Levi’s® jeans again (for whichever one of the 237 reasons.), here’s one thing you need to know. The first few weeks after you have become infected with HIV is the most dangerous time of your life. HIV is a clever trickster – raging wildly unchecked in your body because your antibodies at first don’t recognize it as a threat. Your viral “load” skyrockets – making you the most highly infectious you will ever be to anyone of your partners but you feel and look absolutely normal. Here the real bitch: if you test during this period, you’ll come out negative (because the test “asks” the antibodies if they have begun to fight HIV – which the haven’t because they are blind to it in the first weeks). Eventually you developd some minor flu-like symptoms as your antibodies catch a wake-up that HIV has done a shock & awe on your body. They immediately kick some HIV ass, dropping you to what seems like utter normality. During the whole HIV ride you never really feel bad so you never really think you have HIV. After your antibodies do a Chuck on the HIV, you’re in the “asymptomatic” (big science word) period and it lasts years (5 – 10). Here you look and feel fine but you’ll test HIV Positive. eventually antibodies get tired and HIV begins to take its toll – and this is when folks begin to get diagnosed with AIDS. Thanks to stigma & ignorance, too many peeps wait until they are too sick to seek medical help and that is a death sentence. But those who are proactive in managing their condition do very well. HIV is a chronic manageable disease, like diabetes, if discovered early. It does, however, absolutely suck because it means you spend the rest of your life managing a damn virus. Levi’s® Red for life is all about working it out for yourself. Check out for Red for life Clothing at Levi’s® shops. Check out Red for life / new Start mobile VCT at a public location near you. Sex is beautiful. Thats why we give away beautiful Levi’s® branded condoms. Test yourself. Learn the truths. Make your Plan.

Advert spotted in the latest editon of the Obrigado magazine. Pick one up at your nearest vida e caffe.