#528 Slovakia...Thanks Robert!

The 0.70€ stamp was issued on 03.12.2010 for the Postage Stamp Day honoring Karol Ondreička.

Karol Ondreička (1944 – 2003) a painter, a graphic, an illustrator, a postage stamp creator, a significant artist and a teacher, professor at Academy of Fine Arts and Design and at Faculty of Education of Comenius University in Bratislava. In 1989 – 1990 he was the Chancellor of the Academy of Fine Arts and Design. As the first pupil and member of the artistically strong Brunovský’s graphic school, in his artistic creation, Ondreička continued with the activity of Professor Albin Brunovský. His works are specific for rich imagination, marked drawing skills, redrawing of the details and using classical graphic techniques.

The 0.40€ stamp in the middle is the 2010 Christmas issue showing the Initial with the Birth of Christ from Bratislava Mass-book.

Liturgical manuscript of the Bratislava missal I from the beginning of the 14th century is preserved in several fragments. It can be found in the Bratislava Archive, in the Town Museum in Bratislava and in the St. Adalbert Association in Trnava. Originally having 366 sheets, nowadays there are 303 altogether. There are painted figural illuminations mainly as initials with biblical motifs on some of these parchment sheets of the Codex. One of these paintings, on the parchments sheets in the Town Museum, is the Nativity initial. The scene is placed in the shape of letter P.

The 0.40€ stamp:Fight Against HIV on the right was issued on 01.12.2010.

HIV (Human Immunodeficiency Virus) is a virus that causes AIDS disease. It completely disrupts and destroys the human immunity. It is not a commonly contagious virus. We do not get infected by touch or by common social contact. Infection may occur by transfer of bodily fluids, blood or during sexual intercourse; moreover, by using the same needle among drug addicts. To find out whether a person is infected can be recognized by medical examination after three months, sometimes after six months. The period during which a person is a virus carrier and by the time the symptoms appear could last for years. During this period the afflicted person can unconsciously spread the virus. How to prevent spreading the virus? It is important to inform people how we can become HIV positive and how important it is to have safe sex with a stranger and not to switch partners. Drugs are addictive substances. Drug addiction frequently blocks our sober consideration of risks of the infection. One of the very sensitive routes of the infection is the transmission of the virus from mother to her baby during pregnancy or breast feeding. In the past, blood transfusion was also considered one of the feared contagious routes; however, nowadays there are sufficient medical examinations to prevent the infection.

What should one do when meeting a person infected by HIV virus either by his own fault or by other´s fault? When we realize what he realizes at any time he could get seriously ill, he must be careful and not to take unnecessary risks, his health is weakened.what is important for such a person? The important thing is to have somebody by his side and not to have people turn against him for him not to have to fight against scorn. A lot of people just then realize the value of life, the value of attitudes of people around them and their own value.

We can fight against HIV virus, we can resist it. Yet, it is not possible to cure it. Therefore, it is very important to talk about it in families, to inform about it in media and to speak about it mainly with young people.