Today is World AIDS Day

From Avert:

Started on 1st December 1988, World AIDS Day is about raising money, increasing awareness, fighting prejudice and improving education. The World AIDS Day theme for 2009 is 'Universal Access and Human Rights'. World AIDS Day is important in reminding people that HIV has not gone away, and that there are many things still to be done.

According to UNAIDS estimates, there are now 33.4 million people living with HIV, including 2.1 million children. During 2008 some 2.7 million people became newly infected with the virus and an estimated 2 million people died from AIDS. Around half of all people who become infected with HIV do so before they are 25 and are killed by AIDS before they are 35.

The vast majority of people with HIV and AIDS live in lower- and middle-income countries. But HIV today is a threat to men, women and children on all continents around the world.

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World AIDS Day 2007

Today is World AIDS Day. More than 30 million people have this condition. Will it ever end?

Too many children throughout the world have been orphaned because of HIV/AIDS. Millions of children growing up without parents is definitely not a healthy mental environment for the world's citizens. There are consequences for all of us.

HIV can be spread through sexual contact, through blood transfusion, through contaminated needles and the breast milk of an infected mother. HIV/AIDS does not discriminate against ethnicity, gender or sexual preference.

In memory of those who have passed away because of AIDS, I say I am sorry for the pain you had to endure. I apologize for my fellow humans who may have subjected you to physical and emotional pain, especially through isolation and stigmatization.

Let us continue to support efforts to find a cure for AIDS and to support organizations that help to bring comfort to the victims of HIV/AIDS.