December 1 World AIDS day

World AIDS Day was established in 1988 to raise awareness about the disease, which is caused by HIV. More than 1.2 million people in the United States, including 18,420 in South Carolina, have HIV. More than 10,000 people in this state have AIDS.

According to Lowcountry AIDS Services, South Carolina ranks 13th in the country for the rate of new infections and HIV prevalence. An estimated 3,600 Lowcountry residents have tested positive for HIV.

“We know that working together as a community to fight HIV and AIDS, we can have a much larger impact,” said Michael Luciano, treatment educator at Lowcountry AIDS Services and a past chairman of the World AIDS Day Committee, in a prepared statement.

“It was such a life-changing event,” says Archibald, cutting down young people and touching many families.

Part of the service every year includes the reading of the names of those family members and friends who passed away from the disease. It’s always a stirring and moving experience.

“It's an honor for me to read some of the names. I always think of how many hearts were broken with each name read,” says Rehoboth resident Kathy Wiz. “I cry every year when I hear my brother Peter's name read ... even now, 31 years later.”

Almost 17,000 people aged between 15 and 24 were diagnosed with HIV in 2015, according to China's National Centre for Aids/STD Control and Prevention (NCAIDS). That was 10 per cent more than the number of new cases identified in 2014 in the same age group, and more than double the number of new cases reported in 2008.

Over the past decade, the number of HIV transmissions among young Chinese has increased by as much as 20 per cent annually. China's health authorities have recognised the problem but have been slow to respond. "The real challenge today is especially among young populations, especially among young gay men," says Bernhard Schwartländer, the WHO representative in China. "There's a real spread of HIV in these populations, and we don't seem to reach them well. I think it's a real challenge to Chinese society to deal with populations that are outside of social norms, that are different in some way."

Primary prevention caters to people who are HIV negative. It aims to reduce their chance of becoming infected. There are certain populations, now referred to as key populations, in whom the burden of infection is disproportionately high. These include men who have sex with men, sex workers, people who inject drugs, transgender people, and, in sub-Saharan Africa, adolescent girls and young women. Primary prevention should be tailored, and scaled up, for these groups.

Primary prevention can be provided in a number of ways. But the most exciting new innovation is pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP). PrEP is the use of anti-retrovirals by HIV-uninfected people to prevent HIV transmission. It is commonly given as a daily pill (sold as Truvada) to be taken orally in the same way that contraceptives are used to prevent pregnancy or antimalarial pills are taken before travelling to a high malaria risk area.

Numerous clinical trials and demonstration projects in diverse settings and populations have been conducted with PrEP all showing that it works. PrEP is easy to take. It is also largely side effect free and safe. There is one hitch: it has to be taken consistently at the time of HIV exposure. Adherence has been oral PrEP’s biggest stumbling block.

That’s why a huge effort is being made to find alternative ways to take PrEP. New formulations in the pipeline include long-acting injections, monthly vaginal rings, implants and topical gels, films and dissolving topical pills. The hope is that new formulations will make PrEP more accessible and convenient, particularly for adolescents and young people who may find a daily intervention cumbersome.