AIDS Awareness Week is last week in November, when extra effort is made to raise AIDS awareness.
AIDS Awareness Week is last week in November, when extra effort is made to raise AIDS awareness.
In 1984 Dianne Feinstein, then mayor of San Francisco, declared the first AIDS Awareness Week. [1] The first AIDS Awareness Week took place in San Francisco with a goal of educating staff and students from San Francisco Community College about AIDS. This goal involves informing people about causes, effects, symptoms of AIDS, as well as prevention methods. [2] In the same year, in Toronto, ACT [3] held an AIDS Awareness Week, following on form New York's Aid AIDS Week. [4]
Spreading awareness about AIDS also began to take place in other locations. Across Canada AIDS Awareness Week is the last week in November. [5] In 2002, the Canadian Public Health Association (CPHA) led a bilingual campaign for their awareness week from 24 November – 1 December 2002. This campaign was centered on ending the stigma and discrimination against people who have HIV/AIDS. They also worked to inform people about preventive care against HIV. In addition, they provided the community with free resources and items to further help spread awareness to others. [6]
In 1991 the US President declared, in Proclamation 6305, that 10–16 June was to be Pediatric AIDS Awareness Week. [7] At this time over 157,525 people had AIDS in the United States. About 2,734 of these people were children 13 years old and younger. [8]
Aboriginal AIDS Awareness Week (AAAW) has been extant in Canada since 1998. [9] It began in Vancouver, but now it takes place all throughout Canada. AAAW begins on World AIDS Day, 1 December, and runs until 5 or 6 December.
[World] AIDS Awareness Week is held in Perth, Australia. [10]
Latterly some organizations have used the name "HIV/AIDS Awareness Week".
The goal of Aboriginal AIDS Awareness Week is getting to zero. [11] Despite different methods used by aboriginal communities to try to decrease the prevalence of AIDS, populations like the First Nation tribes in Saskatchewan in Canada, have about 3.5 times more cases of AIDS than other areas in Canada, as well as higher than most third world countries. [12]
World AIDS Day was developed to bring awareness to the issue of AIDS in countries all around the globe and recognize the success and the steady decrease in AIDS diagnoses throughout the years. [13] UNAIDS believes solutions need to be long-term, rather than short-term responses. [14] Therefore, the goal is to look at prevention of HIV as well and World AIDS Day is a time to emphasize this and support people with AIDS, even though people are living with AIDS year-round. It is also a time to honor the people who lost their lives due to AIDS. [15]
Aids Awareness Month has been declared in various countries.[ citation needed ] Also World Aids Day is an international UN sponsored observance. [16]
The US government, in the form of aids.gov, presents an all-year-round diversity AIDS Awareness Calendar, for example for 2016: [17]
The Joint United Nations Programme on HIV and AIDS is the main advocate for accelerated, comprehensive and coordinated global action on the HIV/AIDS pandemic.
World AIDS Day, designated on 1 December every year since 1988, is an international day dedicated to raising awareness of the AIDS pandemic caused by the spread of HIV infection and mourning those who have died of the disease. The acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS) is a life-threatening condition caused by the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV). The HIV virus attacks the immune system of the patient and reduces its resistance to other diseases. Government and health officials, non-governmental organizations, and individuals around the world observe the day, often with education on AIDS prevention and control.
The global pandemic of HIV/AIDS began in 1981, and is an ongoing worldwide public health issue. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), by 2023, HIV/AIDS had killed approximately 40.4 million people, and approximately 39 million people were infected with HIV globally. Of these, 29.8 million people (75%) are receiving antiretroviral treatment. There were about 630,000 deaths from HIV/AIDS in 2022. The 2015 Global Burden of Disease Study estimated that the global incidence of HIV infection peaked in 1997 at 3.3 million per year. Global incidence fell rapidly from 1997 to 2005, to about 2.6 million per year. Incidence of HIV has continued to fall, decreasing by 23% from 2010 to 2020, with progress dominated by decreases in Eastern Africa and Southern Africa. As of 2020, there are approximately 1.5 million new infections of HIV per year globally.
In 2008, 4.7 million people in Asia were living with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV). Asia's epidemic peaked in the mid-1990s, and annual HIV incidence has declined since then by more than half. Regionally, the epidemic has remained somewhat stable since 2000.
AIDES is a French community-based non-profit organisation that was founded in 1984 by Daniel Defert, following the death, from HIV/AIDS, of his partner Michel Foucault. The name is a play on "aides" and the English acronym "AIDS".
HIV/AIDS in Lesotho constitutes a very serious threat to Basotho and to Lesotho's economic development. Since its initial detection in 1986, HIV/AIDS has spread at alarming rates in Lesotho. In 2000, King Letsie III declared HIV/AIDS a natural disaster. According to the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) in 2016, Lesotho's adult prevalence rate of 25% is the second highest in the world, following Eswatini.
HIV/AIDS in Eswatini was first reported in 1986 but has since reached epidemic proportions. As of 2016, Eswatini had the highest prevalence of HIV among adults aged 15 to 49 in the world (27.2%).
UNAIDS has said that HIV/AIDS in Indonesia is one of Asia's fastest growing epidemics. In 2010, it is expected that 5 million Indonesians will have HIV/AIDS. In 2007, Indonesia was ranked 99th in the world by prevalence rate, but because of low understanding of the symptoms of the disease and high social stigma attached to it, only 5-10% of HIV/AIDS sufferers actually get diagnosed and treated. According to the a census conducted in 2019, it is counted that 640,443 people in the country are living with HIV. The adult prevalence for HIV/ AIDS in the country is 0.4%. Indonesia is the country in Southeast Asia to have the most number of recorded people living with HIV while Thailand has the highest adult prevalence.
HIV/AIDS in El Salvador has a less than 1 percent prevalence of the adult population reported to be HIV-positive. El Salvador therefore is a low-HIV-prevalence country. The virus remains a significant threat in high-risk communities, such as commercial sex workers (CSWs) and men who have sex with men (MSM).
Honduras is the Central American country most adversely affected by the HIV/AIDS epidemic. It is estimated that the prevalence of HIV among Honduran adults is 1.5%.
The HIV/AIDS epidemic in Ukraine is one of the fastest-growing epidemics in the world. Ukraine has one of the highest rates of increase of HIV/AIDS cases in Eastern Europe and highest HIV prevalence outside Africa. Experts estimated in August 2010 that 1.3 percent of the adult population of Ukraine was infected with HIV, the highest in all of Europe. Late 2011 Ukraine numbered 360,000 HIV-positive persons. Between 1987 and late 2012 27,800 Ukrainians died of AIDS. In 2012 tests revealed 57 new cases of HIV positive Ukrainians each day and 11 daily AIDS-related deaths.
HIV/AIDS was first detected in Canada in 1982. In 2018, there were approximately 62,050 people living with HIV/AIDS in Canada. It was estimated that 8,300 people were living with undiagnosed HIV in 2018. Mortality has decreased due to medical advances against HIV/AIDS, especially highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART).
Mary Fisher is an American political activist, artist and author. After contracting HIV from her second husband, she has become an outspoken HIV/AIDS-activist for the prevention, education and for the compassionate treatment of people with HIV and AIDS. Fisher is particularly noted for speeches before two Republican Conventions: Houston in 1992 and San Diego in 1996. The 1992 speech has been hailed as "one of the best American speeches of the 20th Century".
The first HIV/AIDS case in Malaysia made its debut in 1986. Since then, HIV/AIDS has become one of the country's most serious health and development challenges. As of 2020, the Ministry of Health estimated that 87 per cent of an estimated 92,063 people living with HIV (PLHIV) in Malaysia were aware of their status, 58 per cent of reported PLHIV received antiretroviral therapy, and 85 per cent of those on antiretroviral treatment became virally suppressed. Despite making positive progress, Malaysia still fell short of meeting the global 2020 HIV goals of 90-90-90, with a scorecard of 87-58-85.
Liberia is one of the poorest countries in the world. Civil wars have killed around 250,000 people and displaced many more. The wars ended in 2003 but destroyed most of the country's healthcare facilities. Recovery precedes proceeds, but the majority of the population still lives below the international poverty line. Life expectancy in Liberia is much lower than the world average. Communicable diseases are widespread, including tuberculosis, diarrhea, malaria, HIV, and Dengue. Female genital mutilation is widely practiced. Nearly a quarter of children under the age of five are malnourished and few people have access to adequate sanitation facilities. In 2009, government expenditure on health care per-capita was US$22, accounting for 10.6% of totaled GDP. In 2008, Liberia had only one doctor and 27 nurses per 100,000 people. It was ill-equipped to handle the outbreak of Ebola in 2014 and 2015.
Since reports of emergence and spread of the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) in the United States between the 1970s and 1980s, the HIV/AIDS epidemic has frequently been linked to gay, bisexual, and other men who have sex with men (MSM) by epidemiologists and medical professionals. It was first noticed after doctors discovered clusters of Kaposi's sarcoma and pneumocystis pneumonia in homosexual men in Los Angeles, New York City, and San Francisco in 1981. The first official report on the virus was published by the Center for Disease Control (CDC) on June 5, 1981, and detailed the cases of five young gay men who were hospitalized with serious infections. A month later, The New York Times reported that 41 homosexuals had been diagnosed with Kaposi's sarcoma, and eight had died less than 24 months after the diagnosis was made.
Zero Discrimination Day is an annual day celebrated on 1 March each year by the United Nations (UN) and other international organizations. The day aims to promote equality before the law and in practice throughout all of the member countries of the UN. It was first celebrated on March 1, 2014, and was launched by UNAIDS' executive director Michel Sidibé on 27 February that year with a major event in Beijing.
The Health Sector in Eswatini is deteriorating and four years into the United Nations sustainable development goals, Eswatini seems unlikely to achieve the goal on good health. As a result of 63% poverty prevalence, 27% HIV prevalence, and poor health systems, maternal mortality rate is at a high of 389/100,000 live births, and under 5 mortality rate is at 70.4/1000 live births resulting in a life expectancy that remains amongst the lowest in the world. Despite significant international aid, the government fails to adequately fund the health sector. Nurses are now and again engaged in demonstrations over poor working conditions, drug shortages, all of which impairs quality health delivery. Despite tuberculosis and AIDS being major causes of death, diabetes and other non-communicable diseases are on the rise. Primary health care is relatively free in Eswatini save for its poor quality to meet the needs of the people. Road traffic accidents have increased over the years and they form a significant share of deaths in the country.
Socio-political activism to raise awareness about HIV/AIDS as well as to advance the effective treatment and care of people with AIDS (PWAs) has taken place in multiple locations since the 1980s. The evolution of the disease's progress into what's known as the HIV/AIDS pandemic has resulted in various social movements fighting to change both government policies and the broader popular culture inside of different areas. These groups have interacted in a complex fashion with others engaged in related forms of social justice campaigning, with this continuing on to this day.
INPUD is an international non-profit organization grouping local groups and collectives of people who use illicit drugs, which aims at "A world where people who use drugs are free to live their lives with dignity." INPUD was founded in 2006 in Vancouver, Canada, and formally launched in Copenhagen, Denmark, on 1 November 2008.