World AIDS Day 2010

On December 1, the world will observe World AIDS Day once again. Millennium Development Goal #6 (MDG #6) addresses the fight against HIV/AIDS. While target 6.A calls for a halt to the spread of HIV/AIDS by 2015, target 6.B calls for achieving universal access to treatment by 2010. Many efforts have been made to achieve this target 6.B.

An informative fact sheet with information where we stand now and what has been achieved so far, can be found here. In September 2010, the World Health Organization (WHO), the United Nation’s Children Fund (UNICEF) and UN AIDS published a report entitled Towards Universal Access: Scaling up priority HIV/AIDS interventions in the health sector, Progress Report 2010. The report states that while progress has been made in many countries, there is still a big need to overcome some important obstacles in delivering universal access, such as a lack of comprehensive knowledge about the disease, limited human resources, and scarcity of funding.

During its MDG Summit on 20-22 September 2010, the General Assembly made the commitment to accelerate progress on MDG #6. Paragraphs 76 of the Summit’s Outcome Document specifies what that means.


Cecile Meijer, rscj
Noraida Colón, intern
October 2010