World AIDS Day: December 1

Every year the World AIDS Day is celebrated on December 1. The day is being celebrated since 1988. It is celebrated to create awareness against the spread of HIV infection. It is one of the 11 official Global Public Health campaigns of World Health Organisation. The Other 10 campaigns are as follows

• World Blood Donor Day
• World Health Day
• World Immunization Week
• World No Tobacco Day
• World Tuberculosis Day
• World Malaria day
• World antimicrobial awareness week
• World Hepatitis Day
• World Patient Safety Day
• World Chagas Disease Day

Theme of World AIDS Day

This year the World AIDS Day is celebrated under the following theme

Ending Inequalities

AIDS awareness week

Every year the last week of November is celebrated as AIDS awareness week. The first AIDS Awareness Week was celebrated in 1984 in San Francisco.

AIDS in India

According to the National AIDS Control Organisation, around 2.14 million people live with AIDS in India as of 2017. India is home to the third largest population of persons with AIDS in the world after South Africa and Nigeria as of 2018. However, the prevalence rate of AIDS in India is lesser than that of many other countries. In 2016, the prevalence rate of AIDS was at 0.3% in India. This was the 80th highest in the world.

India fights the disease through antiretroviral drugs and education programmes.

National AIDS Control Organisation

It was established in 1992 under the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare. It takes leadership in controlling AIDS in India. It conducts estimates of the disease once in every 2 years along with National Institute of Medical statistics and Indian Council of Medical Research. The first such Estimation in India was done in 1998 and the last was done in 2017.

NACO has increased its number of centres providing free antiretroviral treatment from 54 to 91. The number of AIDS patients in the country have increased largely in 2020 due to COVID-19. The government programmes implemented to reduce AIDS in the country have come to halt due to COVID-19 crisis.

Month: Current Affairs - December, 2021