Presbyterian Church in Ireland - Mission Overseas - World AIDS Day 2009

1st December 2009

Today is World AIDS Day. The theme this year, all around the world, is 'Universal Access and Human Rights'.

World AIDS Day, which started on 1st December 1988, is about raising money, increasing awareness, fighting prejudice and improving education.

It is an important day, reminding people that HIV has not gone away, and that there are many things still to be done.

According to UNAIDS estimates, there are now 33.4 million people living with HIV, including 2.1 million children. During 2008, some 2.7 million people became newly infected with the virus and an estimated 2 million people died from AIDS. Around half of all people who become infected with HIV do so before they are 25 and die from AIDS before they are 35.

The vast majority of people with HIV and AIDS live in lower and middle-income countries. But HIV today is a threat to men, women and children on all continents around the world.

When people fall ill, they have the right to medical care. But only one in three people living with HIV has access to the medicine they need to stay alive. Denied treatment, 8,000 people die, needlessly, every single day.
 
Christian Aid and Tearfund, who are part of the Stop AIDS Campaign (SAC), an unprecedented initiative of the UK Consortium on AIDS and International Development bringing together more than 80 of the UK's leading development and HIV and AIDS groups, are backing SAC's 'Push for the Pool' campaign, which aims to help more people in poor countries to get the medicines they need.
 
An independent patent pool would allow more competition between drug firms, driving down the cost of life-saving medicines while also ensuring that companies receive a fair reward for developing new drugs.
 
Patent pools are not just a pipe dream. The international medical group UNITAID is working to set one up right now. But unless pharmaceutical companies and researchers join up, it won’t work.
 
Help is needed to make sure they do. World AIDS Day provides a timely opportunity to take action.

Join the Push for the Pool | Watch 'Push for the Pool' animations on the Stop AIDS Campaign site.