World Aids Day/UN

Independent Films, Health, Social Responsibility Movies, Teens, Web Series, Women

AIDS can be whipped, and the world is making progress. Success will be determined by not only addressing the need for better habits and more effective medicines, but also combating old prejudices. AIDS/HIV does not discriminate by gender, nationality, race, religion or race. The most innocent are not spared by indifference or prayer alone.

Transcripts / Production notes / Scripts

Michel Sidibé, UNAIDS Executive Director:
“It is not just dream; we can start already having a zero babies born with HIV. We have been making progress in the rest of the world, except Africa, we don’t have babies born with HIV anymore. So we have almost 400,000 babies born every year in this continent with HIV and we can start having by 2015 zero new infections amongst babies. And that can be a generation, new generation free from HIV.”

Michel Sidibé, UNAIDS Executive Director:
“We are showing that we can have less deaths, we can have less new infections, we are showing that we’ve been stabilizing the epidemic in fifty-six countries and we have been slowing down the rate of new infection, which is showing that it is possible. Let us continue to mobilize the resources by bringing value for money and being cost effective and using those resources and being results are near. Let us not stop.”

Achieving an AIDS-free generation is possible if the international community steps up efforts to provide universal access to HIV prevention, treatment, and social protection, according to a report which was released today in New York on the occasion of World Aids Day. Attaining this goal, however, depends on reaching the most marginalized members of society.

While children in general have benefited enormously from the substantial progress made in the AIDS responses, there are millions of women and children who have fallen through the cracks due to inequities rooted in gender, economic status, geographical location, education level and social status. Lifting these barriers is crucial to universal access to knowledge, care, protection, and the prevention of mother-to-child transmission (PMTCT) for all women and children.

Michel Sidibé, UNAIDS Executive Director:
“It is not just dream; we can start already having a zero babies born with HIV. We have been making progress in the rest of the world, except Africa, we don’t have babies born with HIV anymore. So we have almost 400,000 babies born every year in this continent with HIV and we can start having by 2015 zero new infections amongst babies. And that can be a generation, new generation free from HIV.”

The World Health Organization (WHO) revised its guidelines earlier this year, to ensure quality PMTCT services for HIV-positive pregnant women and their infants. In low- and middle-income countries, 53 per cent of pregnant women living with HIV received antiretrovirals (ARVs) to prevent mother-to-child transmission in 2009, compared to 45 per cent in 2008. One of the most significant increases occurred in Eastern and Southern Africa, where the proportion jumped ten percentage points, from 58 in 2008 to 68 per cent in 2009.

AIDS is still one of the leading causes of death among women of reproductive age globally and a major cause of maternal mortality in countries with generalized epidemics. In sub-Saharan Africa, 9 per cent of maternal mortality is attributable to HIV and AIDS.

Michel Sidibé, UNAIDS Executive Director:
“We are showing that we can have less deaths, we can have less new infections, we are showing that we’ve been stabilizing the epidemic in fifty-six countries and we have been slowing down the rate of new infection, which is showing that it is possible. Let us continue to mobilize the resources by bringing value for money and being cost effective and using those resources and being results are near. Let us not stop.”

Adolescents are still becoming infected with HIV because they have neither the knowledge nor the access to services to protect themselves. Attaining an AIDS-free generation means erasing the inequities that fuel the epidemic and protecting those who continue to fall through the cracks. Social protection initiatives – including cash transfers and efforts to promote access to services – play an important role in breaking the cycle of vulnerability. The report also emphasizes the importance of tailoring education programmes to target the most vulnerable youths – those who are out of school – with information about HIV prevention.

The report, “Children and AIDS: Fifth Stocktaking Report 2010,” concludes that An AIDS-Free Generation is achievable by focusing on the most disadvantaged communities affected by HIV, says a new U.N. report marking World AIDS Day.

Tags

• World AIDS day
• united nations

Directors:

• Muhamed Sacirbey, UNTV

Producers:

• Susan Sacirbey