CANDLES WERE LIT at Dublin’s Mansion House this morning on World Aids Day (1 December) in remembrance of the millions of people who have died from Aids-related illnesses.
Every week, HIV/Aids claims the lives of 80,000 people worldwide – enough to fill Croke Park. It is a “tragedy that is happening every minute of every day”, according to Fr Owen Lambert of Aids Partnership with Africa (APA), one of the organisers of the Dublin event.
The candle lighting ceremony had been preceded by the launch by Dublin Lord Mayor Andrew Montague and junior minister Róisín Shortall TD of the first ever National HIV Prevention and Sexual Health Awareness Programme for gay and bisexual men, a joint initiative of the Gay Health Network and HSE.
The Mansion House was lit in red from early morning as part of the Dublin City Council event which also involved RED, Dublin Aids Alliance and Dóchas.
Globally, over 30 million people are living with HIV and while treatment advances are improving many lives, HIV-positive people living in Sub-Saharan Africa – where 68 per cent of worldwide sufferers reside – have less access to good medical care and prevention.
In Ireland, around 6,000 people are living with HIV. Some 331 new HIV diagnoses occurred last year with 136 cases relating to people born in Ireland and 71 cases concerning people born in sub-Saharan Africa.
The highest proportion of new HIV diagnoses had involved homosexual male sex (40.5%), while 37.2 per cent of new infections were attributed to heterosexual transmission. There were a reported 10 deaths from Aids-related illnesses.
Meanwhile, migrant women’s network AkiDwA, in collaboration with Diaspora Women’s Initiative, is organising a seminar to commemorate World Aids Day on Friday 2 December from 2pm-5pm at the Irish Aid Information and Volunteering Centre in Dublin.
Presentations will be based on the global theme for this year, ‘Getting to Zero’, which aims to reduce HIV infections and discrimination.
- Aids-related deaths have reduced by 21 per cent from their peak in 2005, according to a new UNAids report.
The number of new HIV infections is also down 21 per cent from its peak in 1997.
UNAids executive director Michel Sidibe said: “We have seen a massive scale up in access to HIV treatment which has had a dramatic effect on the lives of people everywhere.”
