Belated World AIDS Day 2008

Blogosphere had been filled with wonderful posts related to terror attacks on Mumbai. Due to such a national tragedy, some important days went by quietly. So I decided to write a post to mark  1 Dec 2008  World AIDS Day. Better late than never.

Started on 1st December 1988, World AIDS Day is about raising money, increasing awareness, fighting prejudice and improving education. World AIDS Day is important in reminding people that HIV has not gone away, and that there are many things still to be done.

Terrorism is not the only enemy to the very existence of humans and their right to live a life of safety and happiness. What does one do when Nature itself  creates a virus to wipe out the human race from the face of the Earth? Here are some statistics on HIV/AIDS published by UNAIDS/WHO in July 2008, which refer to the end of 2007.

	Estimate	Range
People living with HIV/AIDS in 2007	33.0 million	30.3-36.1 million
Adults living with HIV/AIDS in 2007	30.8 million	28.2-34.0 million
Women living with HIV/AIDS in 2007	15.5 million	14.2-16.9 million
Children living with HIV/AIDS in 2007	2.0 million	1.9-2.3 million
People newly infected with HIV in 2007	2.7 million	2.2-3.2 million
Children newly infected with HIV in 2007	0.37 million	0.33-0.41 million
AIDS deaths in 2007	2.0 million	1.8-2.3 million
Child AIDS deaths in 2007	0.27 million	0.25-0.29 million

More than 25 million people have died of AIDS since 1981.

Africa has 11.6 million AIDS orphans.

At the end of 2007, women accounted for 50% of all adults living with HIV worldwide, and for 59% in sub-Saharan Africa.

Young people (under 25 years old) account for half of all new HIV infections worldwide.

In developing and transitional countries, 9.7 million people are in immediate need of life-saving AIDS drugs; of these, only 2.99 million (31%) are receiving the drugs.

The number of people living with HIV has risen from around 8 million in 1990 to 33 million today, and is still growing. Around 67% of people living with HIV are in sub-Saharan Africa.

During 2007 more than two and a half million adults and children became infected with HIV (Human Immunodeficiency Virus), the virus that causes AIDS. By the end of the year, an estimated 33 million people worldwide were living with HIV/AIDS. The year also saw two million deaths from AIDS, despite recent improvements in access to antiretroviral treatment.

For more data on India specifically click here.

So what can we do? The following activities are not restricted to only one day.

# 1.  We should acquire complete knowledge of facts related to HIV/AIDS and we should spread the awareness. Needless to say, that is one of the important reasons for sex education. Till our country opens up to the idea of having sex education as a part of the curriculum, play this game and increase your knowledge.

The AVERT AIDS Challenge is a great way to test your knowledge of HIV and AIDS. To succeed you’ll need skill, quick thinking and a good grasp of the facts. The more you play, the more you will learn. You can then use this knowledge to educate your friends and family.

# 2.   We can make monetary donations to organizations to aid in their community based projects to spread awareness and to tackle a range of issues such as education, treatment and care.

# 3. We can organize meets and events to spread the awareness against HIV/AIDS especially among the illiterate and poor people.

Related posts

Being HIV positive by Sharad