The concept of World AIDS Day was actually developed in 1987 but wasn’t formally ‘declared’ until an international conference of health ministers in London in 1988.

It’s key architects were James Bunn and Thomas Netter who were on secondment to the World Health Organisation’s AIDS programme at the time. Apparently it’s now the longest-running disease awareness and prevention initiative in the history of public health.

It’s aims were originally stated quite broadly – ‘increased social tolerance and support for people with HIV/AIDS and the greater exchange of information’. To give those aims a particular focus, a theme was developed every year. Perhaps unsurprisingly, the first one was ‘Communication’.

In the early years themes were quite broad. I presume this was partly to engage the widest possible audience but may also have been due to the fact that the role of World AIDS Day was still being developed. As the manager of the WAD programme in NSW, Australia, I found this a little problematic sometimes as the themes were often targeted at developing countries and had little or no relevance to Australia.

However, as the years have passed they have become increasingly sophisticated, to the point where a theme now covers a number of years, with each year focusing on a particular sub-theme.

For example, the central theme from 2005 – 2008 was ‘Stop AIDS: Keep the Promise’, with component years covering issues such as Accountability, Leadership and Empowerment.

2011 launched a new theme – Getting to Zero – and this will continue until 2015. Covered within that theme are Zero New HIV Infections, Zero Discrimination and Zero AIDS-related deaths.

Of course that’s a huge challenge. For one thing we need governments around the world to commit the resources – and it’s hard to imagine places like Iran and Russia doing that (or, indeed, an increasingly pressured UK National Health Service).

Three decades into the AIDS crisis you’d think we’d be a lot further down the track. But, even within our own communities, it’s clear that attitudes and behaviours aren’t what they should be.

World AIDS Day may already be the longest global health promotion in history – but it doesn’t look like it’s likely to come to an end anytime soon.