Every year on 1st December, the international community observes the World AIDS Day to raise awareness of the AIDS (Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome) pandemic. According to the World Health Organisation (WHO) report, there are over 33 million people living with HIV / AIDS. The report also shows that more people are living longer because of the availability of drugs.
One of the good news in this otherwise poignant subject is that there is some decline in the number of new HIV infections. The various HIV prevention programmes world over are finding results. In addition to such programmes, the Anti-retroviral therapy has also made a significant impact in reducing the rate of new infection as HIV-positive mothers are increasingly getting the treatment and hence transmission of HIV from such mothers to their children is getting reduced. But even then studies show that the AIDS prevention programmes are often off the mark and if we can do a better job we can make more impact on our fight against this deadly pandemic. According to WHO and UNAIDS, about 2.7 million people have been newly affected with the disease in 2008, which is down 17% over the last eight years and two million people have died in AIDS-related illness till 24th November 2009, the day the report was released. According to WHO Director General Margaret Chan, national and international investments in HIV prevention programmes have yielded concrete and measurable results and therefore this is the time to redouble our efforts to save many more lives.
Based on the annual report of WHO, Eastern Europe, Central Asia, Ukraine and the Russian Federation are facing serious growing national pandemic. In the whole of Europe, Ukraine has the highest infection rate at an adult HIV prevalence higher than 1.6%. In the countries in Eastern Europe and Central Asia people living with HIV in 2008 was 1.5 million, which is 66% higher than in 2001. Since United Nations Declaration of Commitment on HIV/AIDS was signed in 2001, the number of new infections in Sub-Saharan Africa is about 15% lower than before. HIV incidence has declined by 25% in East Asia and by 10% in South and South East Asia in the same period.
According to UN reports there are 2.5 million people in India living with HIV/AIDS; of this 39% are female and 3.5% are children. A report by National AIDS Control Organisation (NACO) in 2008 says that the prevalence rate of HIV /AIDS among adults in India is 0.34%. Various studies suggest that HIV prevalence has reduced in India slightly in the recent years but the epidemic is still growing and causing serious concerns. NACO, along with State AIDS Prevention and Control Societies and various NGOs, is guiding prevention programmes at state, district and village level. Such programmes reach out to health workers, high risk groups, bridge population (people who live in close proximity to high risk groups and therefore are at high risk of contracting the disease) and general people, mainly women.
Several national and international agencies all over the world are waging the war against the growing pandemic of HIV/AIDS. The WHO is taking the lead in this war in the international stage together with another arm of the United Nations, the UNAIDS. National organisations like AIDS Healthcare Foundation in the United States, UK Consortium on AIDS and International Development in the United Kingdom and NACO in India, to name few, are also undertaking AIDS prevention programmes in a bid to prevent the pandemic from booming. Every single individual should do whatever in her/his realm of possibility to increase the awareness about HIV/AIDS and to remove the social stigma attached to the disease. Only by a concerted and sincere effort can we fight against this fatal pandemic and save millions of lives.
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