A small news item published on June 5th 1981, presented significant medical and social impact to the community and the world. On this day, the Center for Disease Control (CDC), in their weekly Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report published information concerning an affliction called pneumocystis pneumonia. The patients suffering from the affliction were five gay men in Los Angeles, California, and this report on their condition was the published recognition of the disease that would soon become known to the world as AIDS ("Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome").

More than twenty years later, a scourge once throught to be a "gay man's disease" has indiscriminately affected heterosexual and homosexual men, women and children of every race, on every continent. Since 1981, 2.1 million people have died from the disease.

The 2005 World AIDS Day Conference was organized to spotlight the worldwide challenges and consequences of the AIDS epidemic in hopes of effecting positive change.

PREVENTION REMAINS OUR BEST HOPE!

For additional information on the Conference, you must join the group and CLICK ON FILES. If you wish to contact us, please do so at wadconf@yahoo.com.

Looking forward to seeing you in Miami on December 1-2, 2005.

Lisa Hamilton, Chair, World AIDS Day Planning Coalition
Janet Robinson, Co-Chair, World AIDS Day Planning Coalition