Global World AIDS Day celebrations
The global health campaign kicked off in worldwide events as observers helped raise awareness and mourned those who have died of the disease.
- Indian social activists and children release a World AIDS Day awareness sign tied with ballons in Kolkata on December 1, 2015. According to the UN AIDS programme, India had the third-largest number of people living with HIV in the world at the end of 2013 and it accounts for more than half of all AIDS-related deaths in the Asia-Pacific region. In 2012, 140,000 people died in India because of AIDS. The Indian government has been providing free antiretroviral drugs for HIV treatment since 2004, but only 50 percent of those eligible for the treatment were getting it in 2012, according to a report by the World Health Organisation. (AFP Photo/Dibyangshu Sarkar)
- Names of people who have died of AIDS are written in chalk on Castro Street on December 1, 2015 in San Francisco, California. To commemorate World AIDS day, dozens of people used chalk to write the names of people who have died from AIDS along San Francisco’s Castro Street. World AIDS Day has been observed on December 1, since 1988, and is dedicated to raising awareness of the AIDS pandemic caused by the spread of HIV infection, and to mourn those who have died from the disease. (Photo by Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)
- Members of the city’s gay community hold candles as they walk in a procession to commemorate AIDS victims the day before World AIDS Day on November 30, 2015 in Berlin, Germany. According to a recent report released by UNAIDS, the number of worldwide cases fell in 2014 though AIDS remains the leading killer of teenaged males in Africa and AIDS cases are rising in countries across eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union, with the main means of transmission being heterosexual sex. According to the report 36.9 million people worldwide carried the HIV virus by the end of 2014. (Photo by Sean Gallup/Getty Images)
- Activist with the Washington Peace Center protest in front of the offices of PhRMA, Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America, December 1, 2015 in Washington, DC. The activists were protesting against the high price of PhRMA’s drugs, on World AIDS Day. (Photo by Mark Wilson/Getty Images)
- Joseph Leonardi writes the name of a person who died of AIDS on Castro Street on December 1, 2015 in San Francisco, California. To commemorate World AIDS day, dozens of people used chalk to write the names of people who have died from AIDS along San Francisco’s Castro Street. World AIDS Day has been observed on December 1, since 1988, and is dedicated to raising awareness of the AIDS pandemic caused by the spread of HIV infection, and to mourn those who have died from the disease. (Photo by Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)
- Angelica Tome does a chalk drawing of a red AIDS ribbon on Castro Street on December 1, 2015 in San Francisco, California. To commemorate World AIDS day, dozens of people used chalk to write the names of people who have died from AIDS along San Francisco’s Castro Street. World AIDS Day has been observed on December 1, since 1988, and is dedicated to raising awareness of the AIDS pandemic caused by the spread of HIV infection, and to mourn those who have died from the disease. (Photo by Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)
- New York Governor Andrew Cuomo speaks to the media after addressing a World AIDS Day gathering in Harlem on December 1, 2015 in New York City. The event, at the historic Apollo Theater, brought together over 60 AIDS-service and community-based organizations and the NYC Department Of Health And Mental Hygiene to celebrate World Aids Day. Cuomo announced on Monday that New York State would increase spending on AIDS programs by $200 million, on top of the $2.5 billion annually to fight against the disease in New York. It is estimated that 1.5 million people died from HIV globally in 2013. (Photo by Spencer Platt/Getty Images)
- New York Mayor Bill de Blasio addresses a World AIDS Day gathering in Harlem on December 1, 2015 in New York City. The event, at the historic Apollo Theater, brought together over 60 AIDS-service and community-based organizations and the NYC Department Of Health And Mental Hygiene to celebrate World Aids Day. Cuomo announced on Monday that New York State would increase spending on AIDS programs by $200 million, on top of the $2.5 billion annually to fight against the disease in New York. It is estimated that 1.5 million people died from HIV globally in 2013. (Photo by Spencer Platt/Getty Images)
- Israel “Cha Cha” Robinson, who is HIV positive and in a wheelchair, watches a World AIDS Day gathering in Harlem on December 1, 2015 in New York City. The event, at the historic Apollo Theater, brought together over 60 AIDS-service and community-based organizations and the NYC Department Of Health And Mental Hygiene to celebrate World Aids Day. Cuomo announced on Monday that New York State would increase spending on AIDS programs by $200 million, on top of the $2.5 billion annually to fight against the disease in New York. It is estimated that 1.5 million people died from HIV globally in 2013. (Photo by Spencer Platt/Getty Images)
- This picture taken on November 30, 2015 shows volunteers holding red ribbons above a piece of paper written in Chinese that reads ”Red ribbons bring warmth to everyone to prevent AIDS” during an event for World Aids Day in Chongqing. (AFP Photo)
- Indonesian students hold a rally to increase awareness of HIV and AIDS at a university in Surabaya on December 1, 2015. A new UN Asia-Pacific report, released ahead of todays World AIDS Day, revealed Indonesia was among 10 countries in the region with the heaviest HIV burden among adolescents, a local newspaper reported. (AFP Photo/Juni Kriswanto)
- Indian nursing students from the Support and Care Centre for HIV-positive people run by the Sumanahalli Society, take out a public rally to raise awareness on World AIDS Day, in Bangalore on December 1, 2015. (AFP Photo/Manjunath Kiran)
- The Stop Aids Now Foundation burns ten thousand candles in the Arena,in Amsterdam,on December 1, 2015, during World Aids Day to commemorate the 1,2 million victims of aids of the last year. (AFP Photo)
- Members of the NYC Gay Men’s Choir sing while a list of names of people who died, most from AIDS/HIV complications, is projected on the wall during an event on World AIDS Day at the Apollo Theater in New York, Tuesday, Dec. 1, 2015. New York state will dedicate $200 million more to its $2.5 billion effort to end the AIDS epidemic by 2020. It is already reporting significant milestones: no new cases of mother-to-child transmission were reported in the past year, the first time that’s happened since the epidemic began. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig)
- Participants of the youth division of the Hungarian Red Cross hold up a huge version of the iconic red ribbon that symbolizes fight against AIDS as they mark the World AIDS Day in a shopping mall of Budapest, Hungary, Tuesday, Dec. 1, 2015. (Balazs Mohai/MTI via AP)
- The red ribbon, the international symbol for AIDS awareness highlighted on the skyscrapers in Arbat street during a campaign to mark World AIDS Day in Moscow, Russia, Tuesday, Dec. 1, 2015. While the rate of HIV infection is on a global decline as World AIDS Day is marked Tuesday, the number of new infections in Russia continues to rise. By 2016, the country’s Federal AIDS Center estimates the total number of those diagnosed with HIV will reach 1 million. (AP Photo/Alexander Zemlianichenko)
- A couple passes by the red ribbon, the international symbol for AIDS awareness, on the stairs during a campaign to mark World AIDS Day in Seoul, South Korea, Tuesday, Dec. 1, 2015. World AIDS Day is observed on Dec. 1 every year to increase awareness about the AIDS. The letters read ” A campaign for the prevention of AIDS” (AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon)
- A woman holds baskets with reds ribbon symbol of the fight against AIDS, center, and prophylactics during a demonstration on the World Aids Day, in Pamplona northern Spain, Tuesday, Dec. 1, 2015. (AP Photo/Alvaro Barrientos)
- A woman holds a red ribbon symbol of the fight against AIDS during a demonstration on the World Aids Day, in Pamplona northern Spain, Tuesday, Dec. 1, 2015. (AP Photo/Alvaro Barrientos)
- A man lays flowers at the memorial monument to AIDS victims to mark the ‘World AIDS Day’ and in memory of those who have died of AIDS in Kiev, Ukraine, Tuesday, Dec. 1, 2015. The poster with text that reads ‘Do you want to be healthy- take the test’. (AP Photo/Efrem Lukatsky)