On Dec.1, the global community commemorates the 20th anniversary of World AIDS Day by remembering the millions of people lost to AIDS and renewing the commitment to fight the disease. Since the inception of World AIDS Day in 1988, considerable progress has been made in the fight against HIV/AIDS. This included the development of more than two dozen drugs to treat HIV, the virus that causes AIDS, and the implementation of scientifically proven strategies to prevent people from becoming infected with HIV. Furthermore, programs such as the President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief and the Global Fund for HIV/AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria and others have given millions of people in low and mid-income countries access to HIV treatments and services where none existed.
Despite this progress, however, the scourge of AIDS continues. In 2007, 2.7 million people became infected with HIV; currently, there are approximately 33 million people living with HIV, largely in the developing world. In the United States, more than one million people are living with HIV and 56,000 become infected with the virus each year.
In connection with World AIDS Day 2008, Anthony S. Fauci, M.D., director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), is available to comment on how best to move forward in the fight against HIV/AIDS including the need to improve access to HIV prevention services and routine testing and the next generation of treatment and prevention research currently underway at NIAID. In addition, a selection of Dr. Fauci's recent HIV-related lectures and articles can be found at http://www3.niaid.nih.gov/about/directors.
Contact: To schedule interviews, please contact the NIAID News Office at 301-402-1663, niaidnews@niaid.nih.gov.
NIAID conducts and supports research—at NIH, throughout the United States, and worldwide—to study the causes of infectious and immune-mediated diseases, and to develop better means of preventing, diagnosing and treating these illnesses. News releases, fact sheets and other NIAID-related materials are available on the NIAID Web site at http://www.niaid.nih.gov.
The National Institutes of Health (NIH)—The Nation's Medical Research Agency—includes 27 Institutes and Centers and is a component of the U. S. Department of Health and Human Services. It is the primary federal agency for conducting and supporting basic, clinical and translational medical research, and it investigates the causes, treatments and cures for both common and rare diseases. For more information about NIH and its programs, visit http://www.nih.gov.