|PIC1|The 18th World Aids Day takes place December 1st, with groups across the globe backing the event to raise awareness, and who hope that the day can bring about drastic changes to the way the world is tackling the ever-growing problem.

Recent statistics suggest that Aids kills more than 8,000 people across the globe each day, which equates to a terrifying five people every minute, and according to the World Aids Day, “HIV is a global catastrophe.”

HIV has been passed on to more than 3 million people in 2005 thus far, resulting in the global population that are living with HIV and Aids to topple the 40 million mark for the first time.

World Aids Day first began in London in 1988, with a goal to increase awareness about the virus and to encourage people to become more involved in making a difference in the global fight against HIV and Aids.

Britain has marked World Aids Day by announcing it was contributing £27.5 million to the global fight against the disease.

The government released details of £20 million to go to the International Aids Vaccine Initiative and £7.5 million towards developing microbicides that could protect against HIV, the virus that causes Aids.

British Prime Minister Tony Blair stated, “The Aids crisis represents a human tragedy for the more than 40 million men, women and children suffering from the disease around the world.|TOP|

"As president of the G8 and the EU, the UK is showing leadership in the global fight against Aids through a strong commitment to increased prevention and treatment.”

In July a summit in Scotland saw the G8 group of rich industrial nations pledging to work towards universal access to Aids treatment by 2010.

A new report has also pointed out that if better treatment were given to pregnant women with HIV, then the number of their babies that become infected could even half.

Statistics show that 600,000 children worldwide are infected with HIV every year, with a huge majority being because they are born to mothers that also hold the disease.|AD|

Unicef, along with the World Health Organisation are calling for better access to drugs for pregnant women, to immediately slow the rate that the disease is spreading.

These organisations have recently said that less than ten percent of the people that need these services are currently receiving them.

Ann Veneman, the Unicef Executive Director said, “Hundreds of thousands of children are needlessly born with HIV every year, and many of them die in the first year of life. Yet effective interventions exist. We can dramatically reduce the number of children infected by providing these services to mothers.”

Already more than one hundred countries have established mother-to-child HIV programmes, however, most of the worst infected countries, especially in Sub-Saharan Africa still have very limited or no services in place.

The European Union has also reaffirmed its drive and pledge to tackle the Aids pandemic, and to increase prevention, treatment, as well as care and research.