Press Release published at the occasion of World AIDS Day 2004 in which former UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan Speaks on the growing impact of AIDS and calls on the financial sector to respond.

Today, more than 100 creative and programming directors from 35 media companies, leading media figures and non-government organizations from around the world are meeting at the United Nations Headquarters to exchange ideas on how to incorporate HIV/AIDS messages into short- and long-form programming.

A new report released today shows that the number of women living with HIV has risen in each region of the world over the past two years, with the steepest increases in East Asia, followed by Eastern Europe and Central Asia. In East Asia, there was a 56% increase over the past two years, followed by Eastern Europe and Central Asia with 48%.

A two-day ‘National Student and Youth Parliament Special Session on HIV/AIDS’ will bring together 3,000 student and youth leaders from 500 districts across the country to deliberate and present to the Government their recommendations on the draft law on HIV/AIDS. Representatives of student unions, universities, bodies such as the Nehru Yuva Kendra Sangathan (NYKS), National Service Scheme (NSS), and rural youth will participate in the event.

Media executives from Russia, Ukraine, and other countries of the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) have committed to fight HIV/AIDS in their countries, many of which are experiencing some of the fastest-growing epidemics in the world. Meeting today at the first-ever Eurasia Media Leaders Summit on HIV/AIDS in Moscow, media leaders committed to using the power of mass media to help turn the tide of AIDS. Today’s Summit was organized by Transatlantic Partners Against AIDS (TPAA), Gazprom-Media and the Global Media AIDS Initiative – a joint effort of the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS), the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation and the United Nations’ Department of Public Information.

Dr Kathleen Cravero, Deputy Executive Director of the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS), congratulated the Vietnamese government for adopting an evidence-based and progressive National Strategy on the Prevention of HIV/AIDS. “This is an excellent national strategy and stands as a model for other countries in the region and the world”, she told Deputy Prime Minister Mr. Pham Gia Khiem during their meeting today.

UNAIDS acknowledges with tremendous sense of loss the tragic news of the sudden death of Paulo Longo, Coordinator of the Network of Sex Work Projects (NSWP) in Brazil and human rights activist.

Providers of reproductive health services are in a strategic position to make significant contributions to closing the global HIV prevention gap, according to a new analysis published jointly by The Alan Guttmacher Institute (AGI) and the Joint United Nations Programme on AIDS (UNAIDS) with the collaboration of UNFPA (United Nations Population Fund) and the International Planned Parenthood Federation (IPPF).

UNAIDS is deeply shocked at the recent killing of FannyAnn Eddy, a leading pan-African gay rights activist and founder of the Sierra Leone Lesbian and Gay Association (SLLAGA).

The Government of India and the Clinton Foundation HIV/AIDS Initiative have agreed to collaborate on the development and implementation of the Government’s plans to scale-up integrated HIV care, treatment, and prevention programmes. Dr S Y Quraishi, Project Director of India’s National AIDS Control Organization (NACO), and Ira C. Magaziner, Chairman of the Clinton Foundation HIV/AIDS Initiative, signed a Memorandum of Understanding today in New Delhi.