Governor Lolo Matalasi Moliga has proclaimed today as World AIDS Day in the territory and he urges all residents to take part in prevention activities and observances designed to increase awareness and understanding of HIV/AIDS as a global challenge, and to join in the global effort to prevent the further spread of HIV and AIDS.

The joint United Nation program on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) observes December 1 of each year as World AIDS Day to expand and strengthen the worldwide efforts to stop the spread of the disease.

UNAIDS estimates that the number of people living with HIV is 35 million worldwide, while 2.1 million became newly infected with HIV and another 1.5 million lost their lives to it.

The World AIDS Day 2014 theme: “Getting to Zero” is a campaign that focuses on having zero new AIDS related deaths. “We need to raise awareness and help address the many issues affecting our people today around HIV and AIDS,” Lolo wrote.

Samoa News efforts to obtain statistics on how many local residents — if any — have been diagnosed with HIV/AIDS and how many have died from the disease were unsuccessful. Those who oversee the local AIDS program are very serious about their commitment to confidentiality and therefore, no specific details can be revealed.

Earlier this year, a three-day training session hosted by four consultants of the Life Foundation from Hawai’i to discuss HIV/AIDS and sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) was held and attended by representatives from the Dept. of Health, the Dept. of Education, the LBJ Medical Center, and community members.

Secretary of the HIV/AIDS core group and member of the planning board Mrs. Netini Sene told Samoa News at the time that the workshop was for staff development, so those involved in these programs will have enhanced knowledge and be made aware of the latest research about the communicable disease.

Discussions also focused on ways to raise awareness in the community and encouraging people to come in for testing.

For the remainder of this year, Sene said they will be working collaboratively with the DOE’s elementary and secondary schools as far as outreach programs and at the same time, “look at aligning the objectives of the three-day training with the DOE’s health program curriculum.” She said the HIV/AIDS program involves partnerships with the DOE and DOH and the goal is to educate both teachers and students, so the DOE curriculum being taught at the schools, as far as health education, are in alignment.

Members of the core group will have to undergo the same type of training, so they can be updated with information that they can, in turn, share with the community, especially with diseases like HIV/AIDS and STDs, Sene explained.