According to the UNAIDS newsletter for 2017, global HIV statistics: 76.1 [65.2-88.0] million people have been infected with HIV since the beginning of the epidemic; by June 2017, 20.9 million people were receiving antiretroviral therapy; in 2016, the global number of people living with HIV was 36.7 [30.8-42.9] million, with 1.8 [1.6-2.1] million new HIV infections; in 2016 alone, the number of people who died from AIDS-related diseases was 1 [0.83-1.2] million. In 2016, the rate of new HIV infections among adults is estimated to have decreased by 11% compared to 2010. The AIDS-related death rate is down 48% from its peak in 2005.
Since the fall, human history has witnessed a wide variety of extremely negative phenomena. If we exclude the disastrous natural disasters, as well as the seemingly endless series of treacherous bloodsheds, in which our humanity has been so successful, and try to identify some other events that have persistently undermined our lives, we will undoubtedly focus on the terrible and extremely cruel epidemics of deadly diseases. One of the latest epidemics of our time was nicknamed the plague of the 20th century – Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome, abbreviated as AIDS. Despite the achievements of our progressive science, we are unfortunately forced to state that it is far from over. Its scale, cynicism and insidiousness still can not leave indifferent any more or less reasonable person. The official statistics on the spread of acquired immune deficiency syndrome still makes us feel deeply alarmed. A lot of time has passed since the discovery and separation of this disease into a separate category. According to the data published in 2007, this virus began to spread from Africa since about 1969. First in Haiti, then it got to the United States of America, then further around the world. Scientists hoped to quickly curb the wave of this epidemic, as the ways of spreading this virus were established quite clearly already in 1985 – through the blood, and in the social environment there was even sarcasm about this disease, as it primarily affected people with non-traditional sexual orientation, people engaged in prostitution and the environment of drug addicts, but its speed and its maneuverability cast doubt on this frivolous hope.
There are already many millions of human lives on the account of this disease, every year more and more are added to their number and this account has long been not in our favor. Of course, thanks to numerous studies, scientists and doctors have managed to somehow medically curb its activity in the human body, but the high cost of these methods and medicines as always gives a significant carte blanche to its development and spread. The facts stubbornly show that even numerous international and governmental programs to combat the HIV pandemic and AIDS do not allow us to leave this epidemic in the past. In percentage terms, this disease is still characteristic mainly for the main risk groups. Thanks to the coherence of methods and work of medical institutions, it was possible to reduce the rate of spread and incidence of HIV infection and AIDS through medical institutions, but it still remains quite high: from 0.22 to 1.1% of the total number of infected.
Having assessed the impending threat and possible catastrophic consequences, back in 1987, James W. Bunn and Thomas Netter, two public information officers working for the Global AIDS Program at the World Health Organization, proposed the idea of organizing a World AIDS Day. This idea was supported. The date of World AIDS Day was set for December 1 and was first celebrated in 1988. It is celebrated annually at the initiative of the WHO, in accordance with the decision of the UN General Assembly A/RES/43/15.
The symbol of the fight against AIDS is a red ribbon, no action in this area can be held without it. The ribbon itself as a symbol of understanding and solidarity in this unequal struggle was adopted in the spring of 1991. This idea belonged to the American artist with a non-traditional orientation Frank Moore. He lived in a completely provincial town in the state of New York, where his neighbors, one family, hoping for the safe return of their daughter – a military soldier from the Persian Gulf, wore similar ribbons, but yellow.