WASHINGTON December 1, 2010

WASHINGTON December 1, 201 0

AIDS Action Commemorates World AIDS DayToday, December 1, AIDS Action observes World AIDS Day as an opportunity to heighten awareness of the HIV/AIDS pandemic and the impact of HIV on communities, families, and individuals here in the United States and around the world. AIDS Action remembers and honors the lives of the millions of women, men, and children who have died as a result of AIDS and HIV-related illness. World AIDS Day is also an opportunity for all of us to recommit ourselves to vigorous efforts to end the many domestic and global HIV/AIDS epidemics.

The theme of the 2010 World AIDS Day is universal access to HIV prevention, care, treatment and support. In the past year we have seen significant progress in HIV prevention research that moves us forward towards universal access to HIV prevention. The results of the CAPRISA 004 microbicide study, announced at the 2010 International AIDS Conference in Vienna, showed for the first time proof that an antiviral drug can be formulated as a vaginal gel that can lower the risk of HIV infection among women. Last week, the results of an international pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) clinical trial, iPrEx, showed that an antiviral drug taken consistently and in combination with a comprehensive array of prevention services can lower the risk of HIV infection among men who have sex with men and transgender women who have sex with men. These studies follow the promising results announced in late 2009 from the Thai RV-144 HIV vaccine trial. All of these results are not final and many more clinical trials of microbicides, HIV vaccines, and of PrEP are under way and need to be supported and funded. The studies do, however, give us hope. Hope that we will have an effective HIV vaccine and other proven HIV prevention tools that can make universal access to HIV prevention a reality.

As AIDS Action commemorates World AIDS Day 2010, we are proud that we are joining the National AIDS Fund in creating a new organization, AIDS United. The basic premise of AIDS United is that by working together, we can end HIV in the United States. That is also the meaning behind World AIDS Day. By working together globally, we can achieve effective HIV prevention tools, we can make treatment and care available to all who need it. We can support the human rights of all people living with or vulnerable to HIV infection. We can achieve a world without AIDS.