| The AIDS pandemic is the worst health crisis in modern history.
Every 10 seconds, another person somewhere in the world dies of AIDS. Already, AIDS
has killed 24 million members of our human family. That's more than the combined populations
of New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Philadelphia, San Francisco, Boston, Milwaukee, Atlanta,
San Diego, Columbus, Charlotte and San Jose. Today, over 42 million people worldwide are living with HIV/AIDS. Unless significant action is taken now, it is estimated by 2010 there will be 100 million people living with HIV/AIDS and over 40 million children orphaned by the disease worldwide. In sub-Saharan Africa, there are over 29 million people living with HIV/AIDS. South Africa has more people living with HIV/AIDS than any other country. Click here for more information on AIDS in South Africa. Anti-retroviral and other medications can significantly improve the health and prolong the lives of people living with AIDS. Archbishop Desmond Tutu calls AIDS "the new apartheid"* because most South Africans-and a vast majority of people in the developing world-cannot afford life-saving medicines and treatment. UN Secretary General Kofi Annan called for the creation of a "war chest" to effectively fight the growing HIV/AIDS pandemic. In 2001, The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis, and Malaria was created as an international, independent public-private partnership designed to attract and manage significant new sums of money to finance the fight against AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria. Click here for more information on the Global Fund. When the AIDS epidemic began, gay men were the segment of the population most affected. While AIDS is still a serious problem in the gay community, HIV/AIDS also disproportionately impacts people of color, women and the poor. In the U.S., there are approximately 900,000 people living with HIV/AIDS. More than half of those newly infected by HIV are African-American and nearly 20% are Latino. The spread of HIV/AIDS can be prevented and AIDS can be treated. Click here for useful links on AIDS. *Apartheid was the former white South African government's strict legal system of racial segregation, oppression and discrimination against black people and other people of color, from 1948 to 1994. Literally, it means "apartness."   Photographer: Jonas Bunte |