World AIDS day is celebrated on December 1 every year since 1988. World AIDS Day helps raise awareness and to unite people worldwide in the fight against the global health issue of acquired immunodeficiency syndrome. Acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS) is a chronic, potentially life-threatening condition caused by the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV). By damaging your immune system, HIV interferes with your body’s ability to fight infection and disease.

World AIDS Day was first conceived in August 1987 by James W. Bunn and Thomas Netter, two public information officers for the Global Program on AIDS at the World Health Organization in Geneva, Switzerland. World AIDS Day is one of the eleven official global public health campaigns marked by the World Health Organization. Various themes were structured that was proposed as one of the major changes in organizing Worlds AIDS Day.

On a global level, there are approximately 38 million people who are living with HIV. It was first discovered in 1984 and since then, this virus has killed more than 35 million people, making it one of the most deadly pandemics in human history. Today, scientific advances have been made in HIV treatment, there are laws to protect people living with HIV and we understand so much more about the condition. It is found in all the tissues of the body but transmitted through the body fluid of an infected person via blood, semen, breast milk, etc.

HIV is transmitted through bodily fluids that include:

• Blood
• Semen
• Vaginal and rectal fluids
• Breast milk

The virus isn’t transferred in air or water, or through casual contact. Because HIV inserts itself into the DNA of cells, it’s a lifelong condition and currently there’s no drug that eliminates HIV from the body, although many scientists are working to find one.

“HIV does not make people dangerous to know, so you can shake their hands and give them a hug: Heaven knows they need it.”- Princess Diana