December 1, 2025/ World Day against HIV/AIDS

2025-12-01 10:33:00, Aktualitet CNA

World HIV/AIDS Day is marked every year on December 1 to raise awareness about HIV/AIDS and demonstrate international solidarity in confronting this pandemic.

This day is an opportunity to reflect on the progress made to date, to raise awareness of the challenges that remain, to mobilize all actors to jointly redouble efforts to ensure success in meeting the goal of ending HIV/AIDS by 2030.

Global and European data

HIV remains a major global public health problem, claiming an estimated 44.1 million lives to date.
By the end of 2024, global estimates indicate that 40.8 million people were living with HIV, 65% of whom were in Africa.

In 2024, about 630,000 people died from AIDS-related causes and about 1.3 million more were infected with HIV.

The European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) and World Health Organization (WHO) report on 2025, with data for 2024, presents HIV/AIDS surveillance data for 2024, which show notable variations in the patterns and trends of the epidemic in the WHO European Region.

In 2024, 105,922 new HIV diagnoses were reported, corresponding to a rate of 11.8 diagnoses per 100,000 population, a slight decrease compared to 2023 (12.8 per 100,000 population).
However, 11 of the 49 countries reported an increase in diagnoses in 2024 compared to 2023.

Data in Albania

The number of new cases diagnosed with HIV in 2025 is 125, while the total number of cases reported for the period 1993–October 2025 has reached 1973 cases.

· Prevalence of HIV infection at the national level: 0.08%

· Incidence (new cases in 2025): 5.3 per 100,000 population

Established in 1988, World HIV/AIDS Day was the first global health day. World HIV/AIDS Day was originally proposed in August 1987 by Thomas Netter and James W. Bunn, both public information officers for the Global HIV/AIDS Programme at the World Health Organization in Geneva.

They had shared their idea for HIV/AIDS Day with Dr. Jonathan Mann (Director of the Global HIV/AIDS Program), who had approved the idea and recommended observing World HIV/AIDS Day on December 1, 1988.

The United Nations has established a Joint Programme on HIV/AIDS, known as UNAIDS. The programme began its activities in 1996, promoting HIV/AIDS-related activities worldwide. In the early years, the themes of World HIV/AIDS Day focused only on children and young people. Since 1998, World HIV/AIDS Day has been organized under different slogans.

While great progress has been made since the first known cases of HIV/AIDS were reported in 1981, the disease remains a public health challenge. World HIV/AIDS Day is an opportunity for individuals and communities to honor the tens of millions of people worldwide who have died from AIDS-related illnesses. /CNA