WORLD AIDS DAY- Where are we?
Submitted on December 12, 2022.
Annually, December 1 is recognized as World AIDS Day. The World Health Organization (WHO) started World AIDS Day on December 1, 1988, to help local and national governments, international groups, and private people share information. When the first World AIDS Day was observed in 1988, an estimated 90,000 to 150,000 people were infected with HIV, the virus that causes AIDS.
This day is marked in honor of the millions of people who have died from AIDS and those living with HIV around the world. “Equalize” is the topic for this year’s World AIDS Day, which is a call to action. The World Health Organization advises people, organisations, and leaders to eradicate any inequities that impede the eradication of AIDS by using proven and efficient methods.
• Make HIV treatment, testing, and prevention services easier to get to, better, and enough so that everyone can get the right care.
• Reform laws, policies, and practices to address the stigma and exclusion faced by individuals living with HIV and by vulnerable and marginalized populations, so that everyone is treated with respect and is accepted.
• Ensure that communities and the Global South and North have equitable access to the most advanced HIV research through the sharing of technologies.
• Communities will be able to use and modify the “Equalize” message to draw attention to the specific inequalities they experience and to advocate for the necessary steps to rectify them.
UNAIDS warns that in the previous two years, because of COVID-19 and other global crises, progress against the HIV pandemic has halted, putting millions of lives in danger. Access to the most essential services, including testing, treatment, and condoms, as well as developing technologies, remains unequal four decades after the HIV response began.
With just eight years left before the deadline of 2030, all economic, legal, social, and cultural inequities must be addressed immediately. World AIDS Day is more than a ribbon, and we will continue fighting until the conflict is over. Pharmacists play a crucial role in distributing information about AIDS and ensuring that all facilities and services are available.
REFERENCES:
1. World AIDS Day 2022: Theme, Significance, History, and Importance. https://www.ndtv.com/health/world-aids-day-2022-theme-significance-history-importance-3564477
2. World AIDS Day 2022. https://www.who.int/campaigns/world-aids-day/2022
3. Communicating HIV/AIDS: Critical Ideas in Health Communication https://www.tandfonline.com/journals/rcsa20/collections/world-aids-day-equalize-communicatio
