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Marking World AIDS Day

The global response to HIV/AIDS has prevented 30 million new HIV infections and nearly eight million deaths since 2000.

World Aids Day
Globally about 36.9 million people are living with HIV, including 2.6 million children. [Niranjan Shrestha/AP]
Published On 1 Dec 2015

Despite major advances, HIV/AIDS remains one of the most significant public health challenges in the world, particularly in low and middle-income countries. An estimated 36.9 million people globally have the virus. 

Twenty-six new infections occur every hour around the world, making the disease the second leading cause of death among adolescents. According to the UN, with new cases being diagnosed every day, young women in sub-Saharan Africa are particularly at risk.

INTERACTIVE: HIV/AIDS in the Middle East 

In a UN report released in July, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said the world can end the AIDS epidemic within 15 years. Although the virus has claimed an estimated 35 million lives since being first identified in 1984, new HIV infections have fallen 35 percent since 2001 to two million a year in 2014, and AIDS-related deaths have dropped more than 40 percent since 2004 to 1.2 million a year.

World AIDS Day, marked annually on December 1, aims to commemorate the people who have lost their lives to the disease and bring attention to the cause of the fight against HIV, the human immunodeficiency virus. 

RELATED: Dating apps raise ‘hidden epidemic’ of new HIV infection

World Aids Day
An estimated two million were infected in 2014. [Damir Sagolj/Reuters]
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World Aids Day
An estimated 35 million people have died from HIV or AIDS since the virus was identified in 1984, including 1.2 million in 2014. [Dinuka Liyanawatte/Reuters]
World Aids Day
The number of adolescent deaths from AIDS has tripled over the past 15 years. [Divyakant Solanki/EPA]
World Aids Day
AIDS is the number one cause of death among adolescents in Africa, and the second among adolescents globally. [Antony Njuguna/Reuters]
World Aids Day
At the start of 2015, 15 million people were receiving antiretroviral therapy, compared with one million in 2001. [Diego Azubel/EPA]
World Aids Day
Despite widespread availability of HIV testing, only an estimated 51 percent of people with HIV know their status. [Ajay Verma/Reuters]
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World Aids Day
In sub-Saharan Africa, the region with the highest prevalence, girls account for seven in 10 new infections among those aged 15-19. [Samrang Pring/Reuters]
World Aids Day
The global response to HIV has averted 30 million new HIV infections and nearly 8 million deaths since 2000. [China Out/Reuters]
World Aids Day
In 2015, Cuba was the first country declared to have eliminated mother-to-child transmission of HIV. [Mariana Bazo/Reuters]