On World AIDS Day, there is no choice. The situation is worsening, according to United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan, who warns that the world is losing the fight against the disease. Read his 2003 World AIDS Day message here.

As noted by England's National AIDS Trust, five people die from the disease every minute. The disease once known (erroneously) as the "gay plague" now affects every part of this planet, infecting more than 42 million people, 5 million of them last year alone. More stats from NAT's World AIDS Day site:

Worldwide, and in 2002 alone, AIDS claimed 3 million people last year. That's over 8,000 people every day. But the story does not end there: just under 14,000 new cases of HIV infections occur every single day.

95% of all AIDS cases occur in the world's poorest countries. In several southern African countries, at least one in five adults is HIV positive. In 2000, the HIV prevalence rate among pregnant women in South Africa rose to its highest level ever: 24.5% bringing to 4.7 million the estimated total number of South Africans living with the virus.

That's a terrifying thought. And it's the reality that millions of people in developing countries are living with HIV and AIDS as you read this: communities devastated, teachers and doctors dying every day, people's futures shattered, because they can't afford the drug treatments that are helping people living with HIV and AIDS in richer countries like [Britain and the US].

So there are many reasons that make World AIDS Day necessary. UK organization Avert offers a summation:

In order for HIV to be effectively tackled on an international level, efforts need to be made to

• End the discrimination against people with HIV and AIDS.

• Educate people in safer sex and drug use, using appropriate media.

• Provide condoms freely to people in the developing world.
  
  
• Provide financial and medical assistance so that people with HIV and AIDS can be treated. [The World Health Organization is making a move today that is a start in dealing with this need.]

Started in 1988, World AIDS Day is not just about raising money, but also about raising awareness [and] education and fighting prejudice. World AIDS Day is also important in reminding people that HIV has not gone away, and that there are many things still to be done.