World AIDS Day - December 1

World AIDS Day, observed December 1 each year, is dedicated to raising awareness of the AIDS Pandemic caused by the spread of HIV Infection.
AIDS has killed more than 25 million people between 1981 and 2007, and an estimated 33.2 million people worldwide live with HIV as of 2007,making it one of the most destructive epidemics in recorded history.
In 2004, the World AIDS Campaign became an independent organization.


World AIDS Day this year (2011)is about “Getting to Zero.” Zero New HIV Infections.
Zero Discrimination and Zero AIDS Related Deaths.Backed by the United Nations the “Getting to Zero” campaign runs until 2015.

30 years of HIV and Aids

On 5 June 1981, the US Centres for Disease Control (CDC) publishes a report describing cases of a rare form of pneumonia among five gay men in Los Angeles. Soon after, the number of reports of a rare skin cancer, Kaposi's sarcoma, increase among gay men living in California and New York.
These are the first mentions of what later becomes known as Aids.
The term Aids (acquired immune deficiency syndrome) is used for the first time. Before, it was often called Grid (gay-related immune deficiency) and was associated with homosexuality after it was first documented among gay men in New York and California.
The first evidence that Aids is caused by a virus emerges from the Pasteur Institute in Paris.
The first international Aids conference is held in Atlanta, Georgia in 1985.
The World Health Organisation launches the Global Programme on Aids in 1986.
The first World Aids Day is observed on 1 December, to raise awareness, battle stigma, support those living with HIV and Aids, and commemorate those who have lost their lives in 1988
Ten years after the first cases of Aids are reported in the US, an estimated 10 million people are infected with HIV worldwide in 1991.
In 2001,Twenty years after the first Aids cases were reported in the US, 29.5 million people are thought to be living with HIV around the world. An estimated two-thirds of the world’s HIV-positive adults and children live in sub-Saharan Africa.