|
World AIDS Day is an opportunity to raise awareness and fight prejudice about HIV/AIDS and express global solidarity with people living with the disease. Commemorated on 1 December every year since 1988, the Day provides an occasion to remind Governments and world leaders of their commitments to fight AIDS.
There are an estimated 40 million people living with HIV today, 2.3 million of them children. In 2006 alone, about 4.3 million were newly infected with the virus and around 95 per cent of people with AIDS are in developing countries. These figures show how HIV/AIDS remains a global threat as the world’s most serious development crisis.
In designating “leadership” as the World AIDS Day theme for 2007/2008, the World AIDS Campaign highlights the political leadership needed to fulfil commitments made in response to AIDS, particularly the promise of universal access to treatment, prevention, care and support. The Campaign, organized by the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) as a loose partnership of UN agencies, Governments and civil society, is a now non-governmental organization responsible for bringing together efforts and resources to the global AIDS response.
The following are related articles on HIV/AIDS, published in the UN Chronicle:
|
