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December 2, 2008

20th Anniversary of World AIDS Day Marked
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Monday marked the 20th anniversary of World AIDS Day. Miguel D’Escoto,
the President of the United Nations General Assembly called on the
international community to intensify efforts to fight AIDS.

Miguel D’Escoto: “The simple facts that two and a half million people
were infected with HIV last year, and another 2.1 million died of AIDS
around the world underscore the huge amount of work that remains to be
done.”

Meanwhile a new United Nations report published Monday is calling for
increased HIV testing for newborns as young as six-weeks-old.

Jimmy Kolker of UNICEF: “The weakness of health systems, especially in
those eastern and southern African countries, where there is a high
prevalence and the public sector clinics tend to be under staffed and
staff is poorly trained–are all obstacles to achieving the scale up that
we need in order to reach the universal for prevention treatment and
support for people affected by HIV AIDS.”



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