World AIDS Day, 1st December

World AIDS Day, observed December 1 each year, is dedicated to raising awareness of the AIDS pandemic caused by the spread of HIV infection.

AIDS has killed more than 25 million people, with an estimated 38.6 million people living with HIV, making it one of the most destructive epidemics in recorded history.

Despite recent, improved access to antiretroviral treatment and care in many regions of the world, the AIDS epidemic claimed an estimated 3.1 million (between 2.8 and 3.6 million) lives in 2005 of which, more than half a million (570,000) were children.

AIDS 110px-Red_Ribbon_svg

The Red Ribbon is the global symbol for solidarity with HIV-positive people and those living with AIDS.

More information at; World AIDS Day

World AIDS Day 2007 Theme: Leadership

  • Over 5,700 people died each day from AIDS-related illnesses in 2007.
  • Over 6,800 people are being infected with HIV daily,
  • About 1200 of whom are children under 15 and
  • About 2,900 are women 15 years and older.
  • The infection rates in young people ages 15-24 remain frighteningly high.

We know these infections and these deaths are preventable and avoidable if promises by countries to scale up access to prevention, treatment, care and support for all are to be fulfilled by 2010.

Advertisement

3 thoughts on “World AIDS Day, 1st December

  1. Thanks for your comment.
    The good news is that in ‘developed’ countries treatment and containment of HIV / AIDS is getting better all the time.
    However, in the Third World treatment and containment lags far behind and in some cases is growing.
    More needs to be done in undeveloped countries to make available the therapies and education we enjoy.

  2. What frightening statistics. Perhaps the worst statistic, however, was the fact the infection rates in young people ages 15-24 remain extremely high. This means that all of the above AIDS statistics will remain high and probably get worse as this age group gets older. In short, we may be observing the tip of the AIDS iceberg.

  3. Pingback: Thursday « Out Here Hope Remains

.

Fill in your details below or click an icon to log in:

WordPress.com Logo

You are commenting using your WordPress.com account. Log Out /  Change )

Facebook photo

You are commenting using your Facebook account. Log Out /  Change )

Connecting to %s