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 ‘HIV/AIDS – prevention is everybody’s business’ is the theme for World AIDS Day 2007 celebrations and the focus is on ensuring all nations and individuals remain committed to the ongoing response to HIV/AIDS.
Events including the lighting of prominent Brisbane CBD buildings in red – the colour of AIDS awareness – the RED lunch at the Conrad Treasury and a free Brisbane in RED celebration event in Queens Park will be the highlights of World AIDS Day Awareness week from 26 November to 1 December.
According to Queensland Association for Healthy Communities general manager, Paul Martin, the week-long celebrations will highlight the role every individual plays in stopping the spread of HIV/AIDS.
“Sadly, the rate of HIV infection globally continues to rise,” Martin said. “All of us have a role to play in preventing the transmission of HIV. From parents educating their children about sex and relationships, to those at increased risk using condoms, and people living with HIV being careful not to pass it on. Together we can stop HIV.”
In the five years between 1994 and 1999, there was a major decrease of more than 30 per cent in the number of new HIV diagnoses. However, the National Centre in HIV Epidemiology and Clinical Research 2006 Annual Surveillance Report: HIV/AIDS, viral hepatitis and sexually transmissible infections in Australia, released on 12 October, 2006, revealed that the number of new HIV diagnoses in Australia had increased by 41 per cent between the years 2000 and 2005.
Martin is encouraging the people of Brisbane to join in events to celebrate the lives of those lost to AIDS and help raise awareness of the disease. “I encourage everyone this World AIDS Day to show your support: wear a red ribbon, talk to your friends and work colleagues about HIV, attend one of the many World AIDS Day events or make a donation to an AIDS charity. Knowledge, compassion and action are the strongest weapons we have in the fight against HIV. However, the HIV story is not all doom and gloom.
“We can protect ourselves and our partners from infection by education and using condoms. Treatments are keeping many people with HIV alive and access in many developing countries is improving. The world community has finally increased the resources committed to the fight against HIV. But we must do more. The size of our response does not yet meet the size of the challenge,” Martin said.
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