To appreciate the efforts of medical communities in tackling this disease and provide support for people living with HIV, 1st December is chosen as World AIDS Day.
When is World AIDS Day 2021?
Every year, 1st December is globally celebrated as World AIDS Day to raise awareness of the deadly disease HIV. The day aims to support victims suffering from the disease, arranges many awareness and creation programs, and celebrates healthcare communities waging war against HIV/AIDS and helping patients combat this disease.
Why is World AIDS Day celebrated on 1st December?
The first ever AIDS day was celebrated in the year 1988. In matters of placing the lens on global health issues, World AIDS Day lay the stepping stone and built an international framework for better health systems. From then on, the United Nations has been actively involved in promoting awareness activities related to AIDS. Various UN agencies have come together and joined hands in making the event remarkable and helping those in need. UN agencies have strived hard to tie up with several government heads to promote the day.
Likewise, NGOs, volunteers, civilians and supporting firms have lent their support for the cause and contribute every year to champion the noble work. In the year 1987, James W Bunn and Thomas Netter started a new global program for raising awareness of AIDS. These two people were in charge of the global information broadcasting department of the World Health Organisation, specifically for AIDS. Soon after, the Director for the Global AIDS program was brought into the loop, and a new proposal to initiate International AIDS day was formally sent.
Jonathan Mann, who served as the Director at that point of time, was convinced about the idea and began implementation plans. This led to the commencement of formal celebrations from 1st December 1988. The program structure foundation was formally set up for the world by the UN much later in the year 1996. One of the significant highlights of these programs was the introduction of theme-based celebrations, and the norm has been followed every year to date.
World AIDS Day 2021 Theme
The theme for World AIDS Day 2021 is undecided yet.
- The World AIDS Day 2020 theme was “Ending the HIV/AIDS Epidemic: Resilience and Impact”
- 2019 spoke of transition and phase by phase efforts with its theme “Ending the HIV-AIDS epidemic – community by community”.
- The year 2018 theme was “Know your status.”
- 2017 focused on the “Right to health” theme.
- The theme for 2016 was “Hands up for #HIVprevention”
- 2015 motivated the medical community with its theme “On the fast-track to end AIDS”.
- 2014 brought intricate issues to the highlight with its theme “Close the gap”.
- 2013 blacked out on any kind of social prejudice and named its theme as “Zero Discrimination”.
- 2012 turned out to be very optimistic with its theme, “Together we will end AIDS”.
World AIDS Day 2021 Celebrations & Activities
Many events and activities are organised to commemorate the day and help victims come out of their suffering. An entire day is dedicated to people with HIV/AIDS, persons who passed away after suffering from the disease, and the viewpoint of handling the illness in a much better way. Widespread activities of the day include:
- Awareness creation campaigns, media events, health walks and marathons by various agencies.
- The ubiquitous global representation of HIV/AIDS is in the form of a crossed red ribbon. Volunteers carry out many marches by wearing the red ribbons as a show of support for the victims.
- Forums addressing the issues of people living with HIV/AIDS and their families are created. These forums discuss common problems of people from various backgrounds.
- Fundraising is an important activity that happens this day. Many civil organisations and volunteering units conduct mobile camps to pool funds and create a charitable trust to take care of the poor and the needy’s treatment needs.
- Social media reports spread the news on the day to highlight the importance of the day in newspapers and e-articles.
Why is World AIDS Day Important?
International AIDS Day is an exclusive day meant to show solidarity, strength and support to patients who are suffering from HIV/AIDS and remember those who have lost their lives to the disease. Primary health care needs to be strengthened from the roots to set up a robust health network. If healthcare’s fundamental needs are not considered, it becomes complicated to tackle an epidemic like HIV/AIDS.
Healthcare facilities need to be brought in from the backyard and allowed to play active roles to strengthen the system that has been treating AIDS for several years. The ultimate goal of all these units co-working is to end the pandemic once and for all. Another mission is to help and support the suffering lot and their families.
At the end of the year 2018, global statistics revealed a dull picture with more than 37 million victims of AIDS on medical rolls. If we could study statistics a little more in detail, it presented a greater depth of facts. Only 62% of the suffering victims received treatment, and a small percentage was close to achieving virus repression.
The most significant risk of this disease is the likely transmission of the virus from one person to another. But so far, this has been a remarkable achievement for the UN World Health Organisation is successfully showing improvements in controlling the disease.
With more fabulous awareness, people are coming out of their isolation and getting tested for the disease. This shows the increased knowledge building created amongst communities about HIV/AIDS. Governments have to follow WHO recommendations to combat this disease and tackle it from its roots strictly. Proper testing facilities, treatment measures, preventive steps and strategic policies help nations in ending this epidemic.