Sunday, December 1, 2024
World AIDS Day 2024 is its 37th commemoration since its first recognition by the United Nations in 1988. The observance, aimed at raising public awareness of acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS), as well as human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), was marked by governments and non-governmental organizations around the world on December 1, with many making announcements in anticipation of the event.
The UN theme for this year is "Take the rights path" to end AIDS, emphasizing a human rights-focused approach. It is the last World AIDS Day before UNAIDS' 95–95–95 target for treatment as prevention is supposed to be fulfilled in 2025.
In Latin America and the Caribbean, the Pan American Health Organization was launching a "Better with PrEP" campaign. In the United States, the government's theme for this year was "Collective Action: Sustain and Accelerate HIV Progress". President Biden would host the AIDS Memorial Quilt across the White House South Lawn in a first, and on December 5 the White House would also host "Enhancing the Lives of People with HIV: A Quality of Life Symposium". In recent days, the Biden administration has also announced an expansion in the implementation of the HIV Organ Policy Equity Act. In non-governmental activities, the 35th year of the Day Without Art would be marked by Visual AIDS at the Whitney Museum in New York City, and the Latin pop star Ricky Martin would headline the AIDS Healthcare Foundation's World AIDS Day Concert in Miami.
In South Africa, the government's theme for this year is "Equal Rights, Equal Care". Deputy President Paul Mashatile, chair of the South African National AIDS Council, would lead the national commemoration at Mdantsane in the Eastern Cape. In Kenya, the World AIDS Day 2024 Half Marathon in Nairobi was hosted by Health Secretary Deborah Mlongo Barasa with a focus on men and boys living with HIV. In Nigeria, the government's theme this year was a focus on ending AIDS among the country's children by 2030. In Ghana, activist efforts this year have focused on securing government resourcing for the National HIV/AIDS Fund, which was originally supposed to have been established in 2016 under the Ghana AIDS Commission.
The European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control, an agency of the European Union, was marking the date by releasing the latest HIV surveillance data for the WHO European Region. In the United Kingdom, Prime Minister Starmer has pledged to end all new HIV transmission in England by 2030 to be supported by new funding for domestic opt-out testing, and as well expanded funding for international health services. In Central and Eastern Europe, those countries that are non-EU such as Bosnia and Herzegovina were mostly limiting their activities to informative events, counseling and free testing activities organized in major cities.
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