World AIDS Day 2015

December 1st marks the annual World Aids Day event.

Celebrated every year on 1 December, World Aids Day 2015 calls for expanding antiretroviral therapy to all people living with HIV, the key to ending the Aids epidemic within a generation, according to the World Health Organization (WHO). The day is also a way to demonstrate international solidarity for people living with HIV and to commemorate the spirit of those who have died battling the deadly disease.

Run by WHO as one of its global public health campaigns, World Aids Day was the first ever global health day. Currently in its 28th edition, it was observed for the first time in 1988.

The theme of World Aids Day 2015 is: Getting to zero; end Aids by 2030. The federal theme this year is: The time to act is now.

Both themes comply with UNAIDS’s fast-track strategy to end the Aids epidemic by 2030. The strategy aims at averting 21 million Aids-related deaths, 28 million new HIV infections and 5.9 million new infections among children by 2030.

“Ending the AIDS epidemic and leaving no one behind in the response will profoundly affect the lives of millions of people around the world, for generations to come,” UNAIDS executive director Michel Sidibe said to mark World Aids Day.

An event to mark the day was held in Bristol on 28th November at Hamilton House in the city, where speakers discussed ‘HIV Today’.