Over 65 million people worldwide are living with HIV/AIDS, a number that continues to grow every day. It has been 25 years since the first AIDS patient was identified and already 25 million people have died and another 117 million are anticipated to die by 2030. Today, in celebration of World AIDS Day, leaders from around the world have focused their attention on what United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan calls "the greatest challenge of our generation."
This year's World AIDS Day theme is "accountability" with the slogan, "Stop AIDS, Keep the Promise", in reference to a global pledge made in 2000 to halt and begin to reverse the spread of HIV/AIDS by 2015. This Millennium Development Goal sets clear and measurable targets for the fight against AIDS. These included:
The world is falling far short of reaching these targets. World leaders are now calling for increased political will and financial resources (an estimated US$20-33 billion per year will be necessary) to stop the spread of HIV/AIDS.
"Accountability – the theme of World AIDS Day on Friday – requires every president and prime minister, every parliamentarian and politician, to decide and declare that "AIDS stops with me.""
--Kofi Annan
RELATED LINKS:
Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS)
UN Declaration of Commitment on HIV/AIDS
UNAIDS 2006 Report on the Global AIDS Epidemic
EarthTrends
EarthTrends Post on UNAIDS 2006 Report on the Global AIDS Epidemic
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