World AIDS Day Date in the current year: December 1, 2024

The idea of creation of the observance belongs to James W. Bunn and Thomas Netter, two public information officers for the Global Programme on AIDS at WHO in Geneva. They wanted to create an observance, that would rise public awareness of the disease and its threats. In 1987 they introduced this idea to Dr. Mann, Director of the Global Programme on AIDS, he liked it and recommended the date of December 1, believing it would maximize the coverage of the observance by world media.

In 1996 the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS started operation and it took over the planning, promotion and observance of World AIDS Day. But instead of highlighting the problem for one day only, it started focus on year-round events, helping prevent and educate about the disease.

Nowadays World AIDS Day is one of the official eight global public health awareness days, coordinated by the World Health Organization. Every year an appropriate theme is chosen to organize various educative programs.