World AIDS Day Report 2012

Abstract

...No individual or country is beyond the reach of HIV and its impact. Whatever the continent, whatever the culture, whatever the standard of living, people are affected and at risk. UNAIDS estimates that there are over 20 million people currently living with HIV/AIDS and over five new infections every minute. In the most affected countries, hospitals are overwhelmed with AIDS patients; schools, farms and factories are losing skilled employees; children are being born infected or are orphaned as their parents die of AIDS. Gains made in development are being reversed. HIV/AIDS is a global problem that cannot be treated in isolation in a world where contacts between communities, travel and migration are constantly on the rise. HIV/AIDS therefore requires a global response. Many poor countries depend on the resources of richer countries for support in their fight against HIV/AIDS. But industrialized countries may benefit from innovative strategies for prevention and care found in developing countries. In Uganda, for example, the AIDS Support Organization has introduced the "post-test club", a group of people - seronegatives and seropositives alike - who meet regularly to exchange experience and to bring each other support. The tools and strategies of protection against HIV/AIDS are of universal interest and relevance. By replicating successful approaches, and by avoiding in one country failures that have occurred elsewhere, needless suffering can be prevented...