Joint Note for the Media WHO/UNAIDS

It is with profound sadness that UNAIDS mourns the death of AIDS activist Wellington Solomon Adderly who was killed at his home in Nassau, Bahamas earlier this week. Mr Adderly was one of the leading figures in the response to HIV in the Bahamas having served for many years as President of the Bahamas National Network of Positive Living. He was also a prominent member of the Bahamas Resource Committee and Administrator of the Bahamas AIDS Foundation.

Since the beginning of the HIV epidemic, governments have prevented people living with HIV from entering or residing in their countries based solely on their HIV status. Such restrictions have stopped HIV positive people from travelling for business, family visits, or tourism; and from entering a country for study, labour migration, and political asylum.

The Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS praises U.S. House of Representatives passage of the Tom Lantos and Henry J. Hyde U.S. Global Leadership on HIV/AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria Reauthorization Act of 2008.

World TB Day is an occasion to urge action to stop tuberculosis, a disease which still kills an appalling 4,000 people every day. The man-made multi-drug resistant strain and its even more lethal form, extensively drug-resistant TB, are both spreading.

The Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS commends the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee approval of the “Tom Lantos and Henry J. Hyde Global Leadership on HIV/AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria Reauthorization Act of 2008.” The United States leadership role in the global response to AIDS is critical and today’s action demonstrates the U.S. commitment to this effort.

The Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS welcomes the news that the United States House of Representatives Committee on Foreign Affairs has approved the “Tom Lantos and Henry J. Hyde Global Leadership on HIV/AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria Reauthorization Act of 2008.”

UNAIDS and OHCHR call for greater protection of the human rights of all persons regardless of sexual orientation or HIV status

El ONUSIDA y el ACNUDH piden que mejore la protección de los derechos humanos de todas las personas, sin distinción de su orientación sexual o su estado serológico respecto del VIH

The Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS urges all parties concerned, including the media, to understand that HIV infection is a condition that requires appropriate treatment and care.