Every year World Aids Day is being celebrated on 1st December to increase awareness about HIV, the resulting AIDS epidemics and mourning those who have died of the disease.
Since the beginning of the epidemic, more than 70 million people have acquired the infection, and about 35 million people have died. Today, around 37 million worldwide live with HIV, of whom 22 million are on treatment.
“With no effective treatment available in the 1980s, there was little hope for those diagnosed with HIV, facing debilitating illness and certain death within years,” says Dr Gottfried Hirnschall, Director of the HIV department at WHO.
World AIDS Day was first observed on 1 December 1988 after conceived by James W. Bunn and Thomas Netter in August 1987, two public information officers for the Global Programme on AIDS at the WHO in Geneva, Switzerland.
Bunn and Netter took their idea to Dr Jonathan Mann, Director of the Global Programme on AIDS (now known as UNAIDS). Dr Mann liked the concept, approved it, and agreed with the recommendation that the first observance of World AIDS Day should be on 1 December 1988.
This year marks the 30th anniversary of World AIDS Day and WHO has joined global partners to commemorate this day under the theme “Know your status”.
WHO advocacy and communication for World AIDS Day 2018 will aim to achieve the following objectives:
- Urge people to know their HIV infection status through testing, and to access HIV prevention, treatment and care services.
2. Urge policy-makers to promote “health for all” agenda for HIV and related health services, such as tuberculosis (TB), hepatitis and non-communicable diseases.
