About World AIDS Day -
Started on 1st December 1988, World AIDS Day is about raising money, increasing awareness, fighting prejudice and
improving education. The World AIDS Day theme for 2009 is 'Universal Access and Human Rights'. World AIDS Day is
important in reminding people that HIV has not gone away, and that there are many things still to be done.
According to UNAIDS estimates, there are now 33.2 million people living with HIV, including 2.5 million
children. During 2007 some 2.5 million people became newly infected with the virus. Around half of all people who become infected
with HIV do so before they are 25 and are killed by AIDS before they are 35.
Around
95% of people with HIV and AIDS live in developing nations. But HIV today is a threat to men, women and children on all continents
around the world. For more information about World AIDS Day, visit www.avert.org.