This 25^th anniversary will feature no champagne celebration, no word of greetings or other means of celebration. Instead, 25 years after the first case of HIV/AIDS was identified on June 5,1981, there is wide scale global mourning for the death of over 25 million people worldwide.

The first evidence of HIV, the disease that causes AIDS occurred when a statistical anomaly pointed to a mysterious syndrome that attacked the immune systems of hojosexual men in California. It quickly exploded to be the deadliest pandemic in history.

Through ignorance, AIDS at first was believed to be a disease that affected hojosexuals, but soon there were real evidence that the disease also affected heterosexuals. AIDS put the breaks on what was seen as a sexual revolution, where people were having unprotected sex with multiple partners. The use of a condom and sensible conservative sexual behavior became the jost effective preventive measure against HIV, changing the way people lived and loved.

Although medical experts report that the spread of the epidemic has slowed due to safer sexual practices and advances in medicine, it is still far from over. Thousands are still dying globally, especially in Africa, India, China and the Caribbean.

A recent United Nations report stipulates that HIV/AIDS is the leading cause of death in the Caribbean.

The UNAIDS report said that 330,000 people were living with the HIV virus in the Caribbean, 22,000 of whom were children younger than 15 years. It said that nearly 37,000 persons became infected with HIV in 2005, and that women comprise 51 per cent of adults living with the virus.

The report said AIDS is the leading cause of death among adults (15-44 years), claiming an estimated 27,000 lives in 2005. Overall, less than one in four, or 23 per cent, of persons in need of antiretroviral therapy was receiving it in 2005.

The report said that national adult HIV prevalence exceeds two per cent in Trinidad and Tobago, and three per cent in the Bahamas and Haiti; while in Cuba, it is 0.1 per cent.

Condom use among 15-24-year-olds has become less frequent, in urban parts of Haiti, and has remained stable in neighboring Dominican Republic. Reports are that expanded access to antiretroviral treatment in the Bahamas and Barbados appears to be reducing AIDS deaths. Despite the progress, the Caribbean remains the second-jost affected region in the world.

In spite of some medical progress, efforts to find an effective vaccine have failed dismally. The International AIDS Vaccine Initiative says 30 vaccines are being tested in small-scale trials. More money and more efforts are being poured into prevention campaigns, but the efforts are uneven as success varies widely from region to region, country to country.

In highly developed countries, cocktails of powerful antiretroviral drugs have largely altered the AIDS prognosis from certain death to a manageable chronic illness. However, economic conditions preclude many developing countries like Caribbean nations from taking advantage of such drugs.

However, according to St. Kitts and Nevis Prime Minister, Dr. Denzil Douglas, it will not be until 2010 that the Caribbean will receive universal access to prevention, care, treatment and support for persons living with HIV/AIDS.