It’s World AIDS Day. Let’s review:
- There were 2.9 million AIDS-related deaths in 2006.
- 4.3 million people were newly-infected with HIV, bringing the total of number of HIV-infected individuals worldwide to 39.5 million.
- 40% percent of new adult HIV infections worldwide in 2006 occurred among young people 15 – 24 years old.
- More adult women now are living with HIV than ever before; 59% of HIV-infected people in sub-Saharan Africa are women, and the proportions of HIV-infected women continues to grow in many countries of Asia, Eastern Europe and Latin America.
- The number of people living with HIV increased in every region of the world over the past two years. The most striking increases occurred in East and Central Asia, as well as Eastern Europe where the number of people living in HIV increased by more than 20% since 2004.
- Around 63% of people living with HIV are in sub-Saharan Africa. [1]
- A 50% effective vaccine given to just one third of the population could cut the number of new HIV infections in the developing world by more than half in 15 years.
- The May 2006 UNAIDS annual report . . . [quantifies] universal access as 9.8 million people on antiretroviral treatment (ART) by 2010. Yet at the current rate—600,000 more people receiving ART each year in addition to the 1.6 million on treatment as of June 2006—we are on course to miss that goal by over five million people. [2]
Donate to a local HIV/AIDS service organization of your choice in the U. S. or to AIDS Action, a group of the nation’s first and largest community-based AIDS service organizations. (For a list of organizations outside the U. S., visit The Body.) Familiarize yourself with the basics of HIV/AIDS public policy, and write to your members of Congress as needed.
Finally, make sure you teach your children, as soon as they are old enough, about HIV transmission, risk, testing, and making smart choices to stay safe. GMHC has a page of HIV/AIDS Basics that’s a good place to start.
(Statistics from World AIDS Campaign, except [1], from Avert, and [2] from the International Treatment Preparedness Coalition.)