Combating AIDS Around the Globe Lead story from the February
Centerpoint In November 2004, just prior to World AIDS Day, the
Woodrow Wilson Center and UNAIDS, the joint United Nations
Programme on HIV/AIDS, held two high-level briefings as part of
a three-part series to expand awareness of the global AIDS
agenda outside of the health community, particularly within
foreign policy and development circles. World AIDS Day became an
annual event in 1988 when some 5 million people were living with
the disease. Since then, AIDS has killed more than 20 million
people around the world and, this year, 40 million people are
living with HIV/AIDS. In sub-Saharan Africa alone, more than 25
million people are living with HIV/AIDS. In the Caribbean, the
region second-hardest hit by the disease, at least 1 in 50
adults across five nations already are infected. A November 10
seminar featuring Dr. Kathleen Cravero, deputy executive
director of UNAIDS, and Ambassador George Moose, former
assistant secretary of state for African