In 1988, the World Health Organization declared Dec. 1 ‘World AIDS Day’ in an effort to rally the international community against the disease and promote awareness of its deadly effects worldwide. Over the past decade, the observance has grown from mere discussion to worldwide assistance efforts and greater awareness of the disease than ever before.

But here in 2003, the 15th year of official observance, the most recent statistics on the spread of AIDS across the world are downright frightening. According to the National AIDS Trust, more than five million people were infected with HIV in 2002, with more than 14,000 new cases every day. Three million people lost their lives to the disease last year, and 28 million have died since the disease was first diagnosed in 1981, with no doubt countless other cases that have gone unreported. According to the best international estimate, HIV and AIDS currently affect more than 42 million people.

There is hope, however, and on this 15th World AIDS Day, local, national and international awareness events will combine with a renewed push to aid an effort to break new ground in the global fight. Marches, candlelight vigils and various exhibitions and fundraising events around Boston and in major cities worldwide will remember the victims of the disease and serve as reminders to its deadly nature. A concert in Cape Town, headlined by U2’s Bono and Beyonce Knowles, kicked off the push for international awareness on Saturday, and the WHO is set to unveil a dramatic plan today to help 3 million infected people get much-needed medicines by spring 2005.

Many local events will also contribute to the awareness cause. Many of Boston’s museums and galleries, (for example, three Newbury Street galleries and the Boston Center for the Arts) will offer special exhibits, in which all proceeds will go to the Boston Pediatric and Family AIDS Project.

Although publicity for many of these local events has been sadly sparse, annual events of this nature are happening, and those interested should seek them out.

As students, our best possible contribution to the global fight against the AIDS epidemic is heightened awareness: knowing the facts about the disease, realizing the devastating toll it is taking on human life across the world and putting safe sex and prevention measures into practice. We’ve all been told countless times to ‘be aware’ and to ‘be safe,’ and it should not take a specific day to call for these all-too-important measures, but it would do us well to take some time to reflect today on the nature of the observance. How often do we mark days of observance on an international scale? HIV/AIDS is everybody’s fight it will take everybody to beat it, and the solution starts with awareness.