Nearly one fourth of all worldwide AIDS cases occur in women.
Five million people were infected with HIV in 2001.
Up to 900,000 people living in the United States are living with HIV/AIDS.
AIDS has orphaned 13.2 million children.
USM observed World AIDS Day last on Tuesday and Wednesday.
The Women’s Resource Center hosted an event Wednesday night in the Woodbury Campus Center with music by the Neon Black Graffiti, the Zion Train Trio and Kevin Ouelette. Members of the Women’s Resource Center also donned “Ask Me” t-shirts on Tuesday to encourage people to seek more information about HIV and AIDS and the prevention of the disease.
Dec. 1 marked World AIDS Day, a day on which people around the world mourn those claimed by the disease and educate people about it as well. With such startling statistics, education about HIV and AIDS is still needed.
In a proclamation of recognizing Dec. 1 as World AIDS Day in the United States, President George W. Bush announced that his administration had committed $500 million to the newly founded International Mother and Child HIV Prevention Initiative which focuses on countries in the Caribbean and Africa where the pandemic is most severe. In some countries in southern Africa, at least one in five adults is HIV positive.
The facts above were taken from www.worldaidsday.org. More information about HIV/AIDS and what you can do to help is available at that site.