Events dedicated to World AIDS Day take place in Dushanbe

DUSHANBE, December 1, 2011, Asia-Plus  -- The Dushanbe department for youth affairs, sports and tourism is organizing activities dedicated to World AIDS, which is marked today.

An action dedicated to World AIDS Day will take place at the Oryono Culture Center in Dushanbe today evening.

Dilshod Qurbonov, the head the Dushanbe department for youth affairs, sports and tourism, says awards ceremony fort he winners of the contests on the best drawing and the best essay on the theme of “Save Yourself from AIDS” will be held today.  Senior school students participated in those contests.

According to the statistical data from the Ministry of Health (MoH), more than 3,000 HIV sufferers have been officially registered in Tajikistan to date.  Independent experts, however, consider that the real number of HIV sufferers in the country is much higher that the official figure shows.  They assume that the real number of people living with HIV in the country is more than 10,000.

The first HIV sufferer was registered in Tajikistan in 1991.

An estimated 35.7 million people aged 15 to 49 worldwide live with HIV, making it one of the most destructive epidemics in recorded history.

World AIDS Day, observed December 1 every year, is dedicated to raising awareness of the AIDS pandemic caused by the spread of HIV infection.  Government and health officials observe the day, often with speeches or forums on the AIDS topics.  Since 1995, the President of the United States has made an official proclamation on World AIDS Day.  Governments of other nations have followed suit and issued similar announcements.

The theme for World AIDS Day 2011 is ‘Getting to Zero.’ After 30 years of the global fight against HIV/AIDS, this year the global community has committed to focusing on achieving 3 targets: 1) Zero new HIV infections”; 2) Zero discrimination; and 3) Zero AIDS-related deaths.