World AIDS Day

Dec 1st every year is celebrated as World AIDS Day. In anticipation of this day the UNAIDS (The Joint United Nations Program on HIV/AIDS) released its latest report on the number of cases of AIDS across the world last week. According to this report the number of AIDS cases decreased from 39.5 million to 33.2 million. On the surface this may sound like the world is making progress against the most dreaded disease of our times. But this decrease in cases is just due to the perceived better accounting of victims in India and Africa, the two major battle-fronts in the fight against AIDS.
This drop in numbers is already generating debate about whether the UNAIDS inflated the numbers in the first place to raise funds for the fight against the disease. It may also lure the world into a false sense of complacency and decrease the momentum against the fight for a cure. This should not happen.
The 33 million people infected are not the only victims of this deadly disease. If the families of the victims are taken into considerations, as AIDS does take a very heavy toll on the family, the real number of victims would be more then 100 million. In addition fighting the disease is not about just finding a cure for the HIV virus. It also involves erasing the social stigma associated with the disease. Unless investments are made in better education of the disease, and improving the lives of the poor, this disease will remain a disease of the shadow, very hard to fight and even harder to control.