(VOVworld) – UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has urged the further strengthening of HIV/AIDS prevention, in a statement released on Monday, marking the occasion of World AIDS Day (December 1).

A group of Vietnamese soldiers participates in the World AIDS Day's activities in Vietnam. (Photo: UNAIDS)

There were many tasks still to be done to eliminate this epidemic in the next 16 years, he said. Michel Sidibé, the Executive Director of the joint UN programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS), called for the boosting of international co-operation to achieve the goal in the next 5 years of 90 per cent of HIV infections understanding their conditions, that 90 per cent of them would be cured, and 90 per cent of patients would have positive results. Some 35 million people around the world are living with HIV, but more than half of them weren’t aware of their illness, intentionally or unintentionally. The Eastern Europe, Middle Asia, and Middle East have an increasing number of people with HIV, reversing the world’s trend.