Today is World AIDS Day/ What you need to know about the deadly disease that is "threatening" the world

Today, December 1, is World AIDS Day, the global commemoration date that has been observed by UN member states every year since 1988. This day serves as an opportunity for people around the world to join the fight against HIV/ AIDS , to show support for people living with this disease and to commemorate those who have lost their lives from an AIDS-related illness.

Many experts believe that HIV/AIDS was present in the US, Europe and Africa for several decades or more until the first case appeared in 1959. HIV was first identified in 1984 by French and American scientists, but the virus that causes death was not given a name until 1986. It is thought that it first appeared in a green monkey from which humans were later infected.

AIDS caused a major international scare where it was initially assumed to only affect members of the LGBT+ community, but has now killed 35 million people and infected 78 million across the globe.

World Aids Day was first conceived in August 1987 by World Health Organization (WHO) publicists James Bunn and Thomas Netter and then led by the Joint United Nations Program on HIV/Aids (UNAIDS). from 1996 to 2004 when the World AIDS Campaign became independent.