World AIDS Day - 12/01/05

On this day every year, we mark World AIDS Day to remember all of those that have been lost, the ones infected, and to prevent infection in everyone else. [WorldAIDSDay]

"Rage and remorse marked World AIDS Day in Africa on Thursday as the continent worst hit by the global crisis remembered millions of deaths in a pandemic that even new drug treatments are doing little to slow." [Yahoo]

"AIDS is outrunning us. The annual report of the United Nations' AIDS agency, released last week to mark World AIDS Day today, informs us that this year there will be 5 million new infections, a record, and more than 3.1 million deaths, another record. The most troubling aspect of the report by the agency, Unaids, is its grim evidence that many large countries are still closing their eyes to limited AIDS epidemics that will soon explode into the general population. India is providing numbers no one believes. Russia has the world's fastest-growing epidemic, fueled by intravenous drug abuse. Drug abuse also now accounts for half of China's AIDS cases, and it is spreading AIDS infections rapidly in Vietnam, Indonesia and Pakistan." [NYT]

I think this statement from the above article sums it up best: "The AIDS story this year is mostly one of failure: the failure of rich countries to give the promised money, the failure of poor nations to muster the political will. All around, it's a failure of leadership."

More: [CNN] [PersonalStories] [BBC] [Google]

I think nearly everyone in this day and age has some story or connection to HIV/AIDS. Here is what I wrote last year. We need to practice safer sex; not just abstinence, but correct methods of prevention. We need to give clean needles out for users, we need to distribute condoms to everyone possible, we need to work to advance science and society to accept the science needed to find cures.