World AIDS Day
For the first time in history, a day was internationally proclaimed to support the struggle of global health. As one of the official World Health Organisation (WHO) global public health campaigns World AIDS Day was ratified in 1988.
The awareness day takes place on the first of December every year and is intended to generate momentum for many existing HIV and AIDS related campaigns.
United Nations (UN) agencies, as well as many governmental and non-governmental organizations, band together in an effort to raise global public awareness of the pandemic, as well as to support those suffering and fight the stigmatization of those affected.
Last year’s official Joint UN Programme on HIV And AIDS (UNAIDS) press-release warned governments around the world that failing to address inequality in access to healthcare could lead to an estimated 7.7 million additional AIDS-related deaths, before 2030.
Fighting the stigma against specific groups of society is one of the major aims of World AIDS Day. In particular, the male queer community and sex workers, suffer vehement discrimination due to their historical association with the disease.
With that comes the of risk of public defamation and humiliation, and even the danger of violence from others due to their association with the disease. Especially for sex workers, who are 30 times more at risk of infection than the average population, according to UNAIDS statistics.
Similarly to the COVID-19 Pandemic, the global AIDS pandemic is continually victim to misinformation and stigmatization, and as such, many governments are not adequately prepared to counteract it. 2 The pandemic particularly picks on those most vulnerable in society. The number of infections in the poorest and least educated communities is significantly higher than in the overall population.
The theme of this year’s campaign is “End Inequalities, End AIDS, End Pandemics.” This is intended to bring attention to what is needed to fight both the AIDS, and COVID-19, Pandemics. Namely, more testing, greater awareness, improved infrastructure and better planning.
Find out more about how you can help join the fight against the global HIV and AIDS pandemic here.
Author: Lorena Raub, University of Passau, Germany
Photo by Claudio Schwarz on Unsplash
