HIV positive woman in India. DIBYANGSHU SARKAR/AFP/Getty Images
Ahead of the 20th annual World AIDS Day on 1st December, the BBC World Service Trust is co-hosting a special season of events with the Frontline Club in London throughout November exploring issues around living with HIV, the search for a cure, securing universal access, and documenting the impact of this devastating disease.
Highlights include a screening of Living with AIDS with Sierra Leonean journalist Sorious Samura, a photo exhibition looking at the impact of HIV/AIDS in Africa by Gideon Mendel and a panel discussion looking at the future of AIDS prevention work “Have we seen the worst?”
Full details of each event are on the Frontline Club website, or at the bottom of this post.
According to World Health Organisation (WHO) statistics, there are currently around 33 million people worldwide living with HIV, although the figure could be as high as 36 million. Sub-Saharan Africa is the most affected region in the world, with 12 million people living with HIV compared to 4 million in south and south-east Asia and 1.6 million in eastern Europe and central Asia.
These latest 2007 figures are significantly lower than previous years, and have led to earlier stats being revised downwards. However prevalence remains the same, and the numbers of those affected continues to rise each year.
The numbers are so large as to be almost beyond comprehension, but this has not stopped innovative and creative work being done all over the world to educate about and combat the spread of HIV/AIDS. Significant progress has been made in some quarters – in countries such as Cambodia overall rates of infection have declined – and strategies for HIV/AIDS prevention are built-in to global plans such as the UN Millennium Development Goals (goal 6). But despite a decline in HIV-related deaths, the current epidemic cannot be reversed without reducing the rate of new infections.
The BBC World Service Trust has this year been working on a major campaign promoting HIV/AIDS awareness in India, and was recently named as the most innovative safe sex campaign by CNN. The “Condom, Condom!” campaign has so far reached over 100 million people in India – a country with 2.5 million people living with HIV, and the second highest number in the world.
“Lead, empower, deliver” is this year’s theme, continuing the focus on leadership – not only political, but at all levels of society – from 2007. It is one we should all take to heart in asking how we can contribute to ending the suffering caused by a twenty-year old epidemic.
Frontline events:
18th November: Screening, Living with AIDS (Sorious Samura)
25th November: Insight with Elizabeth Pisani – The Wisdom of Whores
26th November: In the picture with Gideon Mendel
1st December: HIV/AIDS: Have we seen the worst?
Useful links:
11 November, 2008 at 4:46 pm
[...] Ahead of the 20th annual World AIDS Day on 1st December, the BBC World Service Trust is co-hosting a special season of events with the Frontline Club in London throughout November exploring issues around living with HIV, the search for … Read more [...]