More than 33 million living with the HIV virus today
Over the past decade, Russia has experienced one of the fastest growing HIV epidemics in the world. In 2007, UNAIDS estimated that approximately one million adults in the country were infected with the virus. The East Siberian region of Irkutsk was especially hard hit. In 1998, only two cases of HIV had been reported here; a year later it jumped to 2,631.
In response, the Irkutsk branch of the Russian Red Cross began working on HIV in their community. But it wasn’t until February 2003, with grants from the Anne Ray Charitable Turst and in partnership with the American Red Cross that the Irkutsk branch was able to design and implement programs to offer care and support for pregnant women, new mothers and those living with HIV.
“If I had not visited the Irkutsk branch of the Red Cross, I would have probably had an abortion,” said one of the clients. “No one at the local health clinic told me that an HIV-positive person could give birth to a healthy child. Now I am very happy that I have had a baby.”
The 20th World AIDS Day is today. The 2008 observance comes at a time when more than 33 million people around the world, including an estimated one million Americans, are living with the HIV virus that causes AIDS.
Despite progress made in scaling up the response to HIV/AIDS over the last decade, the HIV pandemic remains the most serious infectious disease challenge to global public health. Every day, more than 7,300 people become infected with HIV and more than 5,400 people die worldwide. 1
Established by the World Health Organization in 1988, World AIDS Day gives governments, faith and community organizations, national AIDS programs and individuals the opportunity to raise awareness about the disease and focus attention on the AIDS epidemic.
Combating this global catastrophe is a major goal of the United Nations Millennium Declaration and a key priority for the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Society’s Global Agenda for 2006–2010. Programs seek to prevent further infection; expand care, treatment, and support, and reduce the stigma and discrimination toward those living with HIV.
The American Red Cross works with other Red Cross Societies around the world, to educate people about HIV/AIDS, and to support those who care for people affected by HIV/AIDS.
HIV/AIDS Programs in the United States:
The American Red Cross educates people in the United States on how to prevent the transmission of HIV, how to care for and provide support to people living with HIV, and how to apply the facts about HIV to their own behavior. These goals are accomplished through our easy to use educational programs designed to reach a variety of audiences. Some of these include Basic HIV/AIDS Awareness, the African American and Hispanic HIV/AIDS Programs, and HIV/AIDS Programs in the Workplace.
HIV/AIDS Education in Tanzania, Haiti, and Guyana:
The American Red Cross works with our sister Red Cross societies in Tanzania, Haiti and Guyana to empower young people between the ages of 10 and 24 with the knowledge and skills needed to reduce their risk of HIV infection, using the Together We Can program. The program also connects to the local community and reaches larger numbers of young people through peer to peer outreach and through “edutainment” events such as concerts, street theater, films and sports that all educate through entertainment. Through this collaboration with our sister societies Together We Can has reached more than 800,000 young people.
HIV/AIDS Care and Support Program in Russia:
Russia has experienced one of the fastest growing HIV/AIDS epidemics in the world in the last ten years. The American Red Cross is supporting the Russian Red Cross in an HIV/AIDS prevention, care and support project which includes home-based care services by visiting nurses who provide nutritional assistance, health checkups and developmental and psychological support for pregnant women with HIV and children born to mothers living with HIV.
HIV/AIDS Care and Support Program in Vietnam:
The HIV/AIDS epidemic in Vietnam is growing rapidly in high-risk populations such as drug users and commercial sex workers. The American Red Cross is supporting the Vietnam Red Cross with a program in Hanoi focused on prevention, care, and support services, including a counseling center, peer support groups, and home based care.
About the American Red Cross:
The American Red Cross shelters, feeds and counsels victims of disasters; provides nearly half of the nation's blood supply; teaches lifesaving skills; and supports military members and their families. The Red Cross is a charitable organization – not a government agency – and depends on volunteers and the generosity of the American public to perform its humanitarian mission. For more information, please visit www.redcross.org or join our blog at www.redcrosschat.org.
1 2008 Report on the Global AIDS Epidemic, Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS), 2008.
Published on: 2008-12-01
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