YUMA, Ariz- World Aids Day is held on the 1st of December each year and is an opportunity for people worldwide to unite in the fight against HIV, show their support for people living with HIV and to commemorate people who have died.
World Aids Day was the first ever Global Health Day, held for the first time in 1988.
Dolores Messer who’s a member of Yuma United Church of Christ says, “I know in the past I think people thought of it as a gay disease but it’s not a gay disease. It’s affecting a lot of women and children. I don’t have statistics to say what those are but it can affect anyone and that’s why awareness and prevention is so important.”
Here in the Desert Southwest Yuma United Church of Christ held a commemoration on behalf of those that are living with and have passed away with HIV or AIDS. Tonight Reverend Alberta Wallace was the guest speaker at the commemoration and those in attendance particpated in a candlelight walk around the park and then guests decorated the Ramada #29.
According to worldaidsday.org over 100,000 people are living with HIV in the UK. Globally there are an estimated 34 million people who have the virus. And more than 35 million people have died of HIV or Aids, making it one of the most destructive global outbreak diseases in history.