By Larry Tate
November 22, 2004

On December 1, World AIDS Day 2004 will be observed all around the globe. This year's theme is "Women, Girls, HIV and AIDS." Women now make up half of all people living with HIV worldwide, most of them in sub'saharan Africa. In that region, women are infected at an earlier age than men, a trend most pronounced in the 15-24 age group. But women are increasingly at risk in the United States, especially minority women-African Americans in particular. The rate of infection is rising, and AIDS is a leading cause of death among women aged 25-44 years.

This year's World AIDS Day campaign explores how gender inequality fuels the epidemic. All over the world women have fewer rights and lack access to employment, property and education, compared with men. Women and girls are also more likely to face sexual violence, and consequently are more vulnerable to HIV.

AIDS has killed more than 20 million people since 1981, including 2.9 million in 2003 alone. Estimates are that at the end of 2003, 37.9 million people were infected with HIV, with almost 3 million new infections in 2003. Sub-Saharan Africa is the hardest-hit region, with perhaps three- quarters of the total HIV-infected population. But other areas such as Asia and countries such as Russia are seriously affected as persistent high-risk behaviors cause HIV rates to rise.

In the United States, though AIDS deaths remain lower than they were before new therapies became available, as many as 950,000 people may be infected. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the most comprehensive analysis of US HIV cases to date shows that new HIV diagnoses rose by 5.1 per cent over the period from 1999 to 2002. Estimates put the annual number of new infections at 40,000.

World AIDS Day is an annual event dedicated to remembering the victims of AIDS, learning more about the effects of the disease, and renewing a commitment to fight it.

For more information about planning local events, crafting public-awareness messages, and working with your local media, please visit http://www.omhrc.gov/hivaidsobservances/wad/index.html