World Aids Day: Keeping it on the agenda all year round

do see the point of World Aids Day. Who would not? I am still shocked by the figures. There are 33.3 million people living with HIV and their numbers went up by 2.6 million last year, while 1.8 million died. Some 5.2 million people in developing countries are on drug treatment, but 10 million more need it urgently – or they will add to the death toll. And the money to pay for increased efforts to get those drugs to people and to help people protect themselves from infection is flat-lining. It's a very worrying situation, which I take very seriously and wrote about last week.

So yes – there's every reason for those who care to try to make a big impact on 1 December. But why do they all try so hard all at once? My complaint is a simple one. I and every other journalist who writes about HIV have been flooded with emails and press releases, offering reports, initiatives, rallies, stunts and expert opinion. I can't write about them all. I can do a couple of pieces at best. My impression is that the world goes through one big anxious shudder on World Aids Day and then forgets about it for the rest of the year. A small, plaintive plea to all those who have pitched in this year – can you please try to space it out? Why not launch some of this, often very interesting and highly worthy, material at other times of the year – and then perhaps HIV/Aids will stay on the agenda for longer than a few days?Here, then - with apologies and in no particular order - are some of the things to which I have not been able to give enough attention:
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