Monday 01 December2008: World AIDS Day is observed every year on December 1st. The World Health Organization established World AIDS Day in 1988. World AIDS Day provides governments, national AIDS programs, faith organizations, community organizations, and individuals with an opportunity to raise awareness and focus attention on the global AIDS epidemic.

“AIDS is the greatest humanitarian crisis of our time, leaving an entire generation of orphans and vulnerable children in jeopardy. Around the world, another person dies because of AIDS every 15 seconds,” said Chaplain to the Institute Robert M. Randolph. “MIT has been doing research for years on eradicating the AIDS virus and many community members have directly or indirectly contributed to this ongoing effort.”

“The global AIDS epidemic continues to grow and there is concerning evidence that some countries are seeing a resurgence in new HIV infection rates,” states the 2006 annual report of UNAIDS, the United Nations program dedicated to HIV/AIDS awareness and prevention.
Many believe that AIDS is an epidemic on the decline, but figures recently published in the UNAIDS/WHO 2006 AIDS Epidemic Update state otherwise.
According to UNAIDS in 2006, 39.5 million people are living with HIV. This is an increase of 2.6 million people from 2004. The number of new infections rose to 4.3 million in 2006.
The number of people living with HIV has increased in every region of the world in the past two years. More adult women are living with HIV than ever before.