World AIDS Day 2010

Today is December 1 and many of us in a big hurry and a Christmas rush, by cleaning fresh snow or by carefully driving on the frozen roads, have forgotten that today is the World day of the fight against on of the most terrible illness in the world – AIDS. When I in year 2008 wrote in the context of Second Life world about this day (here), some both sad and terrible statistics had been missed there. So, here are the facts about HIV and AIDS.

• To date around 65 million people have been infected with HIV and AIDS has killed more than 25 million people since it was first recognized in 1981.
  
• The vast majority of the 38.6 million people living with HIV in 2005 are unaware of their status.
  
• In 2005 AIDS claimed the lives of 2.8 million people and over 4 million people were newly infected with the virus.
  
• At around 17.3 million, women make up almost half of the total number of people living with the virus.
  
• Sub-Saharan remains the most affected region in the world. Two-thirds of all people living with HIV, 24.5 million, are in sub-Saharan Africa.
  
• Declines in HIV prevalence have been noted in some countries, including Kenya, Zimbabwe, urban parts of Haiti and Burkina Faso and four Indian states including Tamil Nadu.
  
• There are more new HIV infections every year than AIDS-related deaths and as more people become infected with HIV, more people will die of AIDS-related illnesses.
  
• Worldwide, fewer than one person in five at risk of becoming infected with HIV has access to basic prevention services. Only one person in eight who want to be tested is currently able to do so.
  
• Each day, 1500 children worldwide become infected with HIV, the vast majority of them newborns.

What will you do for this thing? I have donated into above mentioned fund in RL and in SL I wear the symbol of the fight against AIDS – red ribbon.

Sources: Care, Keep A Child Alive, USA Today, World AIDS Day 2010