Started on 1st December 1988, World AIDS Day is about raising money, increasing awareness, fighting prejudice and improving education. World AIDS Day provides an opportunity for all of us - individuals, communities and political leaders - to take action and ensure that human rights are protected and global targets for HIV/AIDS prevention, treatment and care are met.

The protection of human rights is fundamental to combating the global HIV and AIDS epidemic. Violations against human rights fuel the spread of HIV, putting marginalised groups, such as injecting drug users and sex workers, at a higher risk of HIV infection. By promoting individual human rights, new infections can be prevented and people who have HIV can live free from discrimination.

According to the report, "Cultural, social and behavioral norms have contributed to keeping infection at very low levels. However, another contributing factor was the Aids Control Program, which was adopted by the ministry and considered as the first of its kind in the region."

The joint program launched by government and private institutions is of great importance in curbing the disease especially in view of the large communities of expatriates from endemic countries in the UAE.

The AIDS control program was initiated in response to the increasing awareness of policy-makers of the growing health, development and social-economic crises of Aids and its main objective is stated to be the prevention of transmission of the disease and controlling its entry into the country through primary prevention, early detection and effective management.

DIFF 2009 To Present Third Cinema Against AIDS Dubai, Gala To Raise Funds For amfAR Charity

Under the patronage of Her Royal Highness Princess Haya Bint Al Hussein, UN Messenger of Peace, Chairperson of International Humanitarian City and wife of His Highness Sheikh Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice-President & Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai, the Dubai International Film Festival (DIFF), the leading cinema event in the Middle East, Africa and new Asia, will present the third annual Cinema Against AIDS Dubai gala to raise funds for amfAR, the Foundation for AIDS Research, on December 10, 2009.


AIDS Healthcare Foundation

The World AIDS Day 2009 Testing Millions Global Campaign, organized by AIDS Healthcare Foundation, is mobilizing a growing, worldwide coalition of non-governmental organizations (NGOs), local and national governments, international relief agencies, faith-based organizations, medical providers, civil and corporate society, the media and YOU, to facilitate free HIV tests during World AIDS Day activities throughout the months of November and December.

AIDS Healthcare Foundation (AHF) offers a full spectrum of expert services to treat the unique and ongoing needs of people living with HIV/AIDS around the globe. AHF is a worldwide leader in providing innovative programs and services and a renowned expert at tackling the new and existing challenges of the HIV/AIDS epidemic.

Three years after being called AIDS Hospice Foundation, AIDS Healthcare Foundation (AHF) embraced its name change in 1990 to meet the growing need of medical care and treatment for people living with HIV/AIDS. For 12 years AHF grew and operated a group of HIV/AIDS healthcare and treatment centers along with several other innovative programs that aided with generating revenue for the organization and in 2002 it launched its first global effort.

AHF's innovative programs, global approach and sustained long view have been instrumental in providing medical care and treatment to people with HIV/AIDS in more than 20 countries.


HIV Facts

According to UNAIDS around half of all people who become infected with HIV do so before they are 25 and are killed by AIDS before they are 35. A vast majority of people with HIV and AIDS live in lower- and middle-income countries. But HIV today is a threat to men, women and children on all continents around the world.

• The World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that 33 Million people are living with HIV/AIDS, including 2.5 million children
  
• The vast majority of positive people worldwide are unaware of their HIV status.
  
• 9.7 Million people are in urgent need of lifesaving antiretroviral treatment (ART) today.
  
• Less than 3 Million people have access to ART today, leaving more than 6 Million to become sick and die.
  
  

With time and research, it has become clear that HIV and AIDS existed decades before 1982. An analysis of blood sample taken from a man in 1959 in Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of Congo, suggests that HV-1 may have developed from a single virus in the late 1940s or early 1950s.

Myths and theories about the spread of HIV abound - a promiscuous flight attendant or the purposeful spread of a man-made virus (a conspiracy), for example - have all been suggested. Most of these theories have been discredited or have not proven to have a basis in fact.

Research on HIV

Recent research suggest that High risk HPV infection is associated with HIV acquisition and there was a 3.4-fold higher risk of HIV infection in female sex workers with high-risk HPV infection.

The likelihood of acquiring HIV increased dramatically in men with multiple subtypes of HPV. It is calculated that annual HIV incidence in men without HPV was less than one per cent, 3-4% in men with one or two types, 10% in men with three types and 21% in men with five types. Each infection with an additional high-risk type of HPV increased the likelihood of HIV acquisition by two-thirds.

Bertran Auvert, the principal investigator of the ANRS1265 circumcision trial in Orange Farm, South Africa, hinted that he was proposing a trial of one of the HPV vaccines as a method of reducing HIV infection.

Common Sexually Transmitted Diseases

Like HIV, other sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) are mainly passed from one person to another (that is transmitted) during sex. There are at least 25 different sexually transmitted diseases with a range of different symptoms. These diseases may be spread through vaginal, anal and oral sex.
Most sexually transmitted diseases will only affect you if you have sexual contact with someone who has an STD. However there are some infections, for example scabies, which are referred to as STDs because they are most commonly transmitted sexually, but which can also be passed on in other ways.
STD symptoms vary, but the most common are soreness, unusual lumps or sores, itching, pain when urinating, and/or an unusual discharge from the genitals.

• High and low risk HPV genotypes,
  
• Chlamydia,
  
• Gonorrhea,
  
• Herpes simplex virus 1/ 2,
  
• Mycoplasma Genitalium,
  
• Ureaplasma Genitalium,
  
• Trichomonas Vaginalis,
  
• Gardnerella etc.