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HIV and AIDS

Supporting the community response
The world has been confronting HIV and AIDS for over 25 years. In that time AIDS has taken over 20 million lives and another 33 million people are living with HIV today.

Although we understand how HIV transmission can be prevented, and antiretroviral (ARV) treatments have dramatically extended life for some, there is still no cure, no vaccine, and no short cut to accessing effective healthcare for the millions affected who live with poverty, stigma and little care or support.

We established Positive Action in 1992, an early recognition of the pivotal role played by communities in responding to the world's HIV and AIDS epidemics. Since then the programme has supported projects that strengthen these communities' responses and encourage greater involvement of people living with HIV and AIDS.

Positive Action has enabled:

• 8,000 community and healthcare workers to be trained in East Africa
• Enabled 45,000 community, science and medical delegates to interact through the international AIDS conference Global Villages in Mexico City, Toronto and Bangkok
• 40 clinics in Kenya to develop their community links to improve ARV provision
• Helped four HIV clinics in China improve patient follow-up from 70 per cent to more than 99 per cent
• 8,500 healthcare professionals in 173 countries to have access to HIV and AIDS training toolkits
• 100 policemen in central Mexico to receive human rights training
• Established a sustainable HIV prevention project that will initially reach 500,000 women and 2.5 million family members in rural India
• Supported 65 projects in 63 countries around the world in partnership with 54 organisations over the last seven years

Positive Action at International AIDS Conferences
GlaxoSmithKline’s Positive Action is the principal sponsor of the Global Village at AIDS2008, being held in Mexico City. The Global Village is an interactive and participatory community space that aims to engage, challenge and inspire conference delegates and local community attendees.

In addition to its support for the Global Village, Positive Action and our partners will host a number of community forums where community delegates can share experiences, learning from each other and from experts to increase their effectiveness and ability to respond to the changing epidemic and socio-political environment.

In 2004 Positive Action supported the creation of a new forum for the HIV community at the International AIDS conference in Bangkok – the Global Village. As the principle sponsor of subsequent Global villages in Toronto and in Mexico City, Positive Action has helped this innovation emerge as the significant and now essential opportunity for communities affected by HIV.

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