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At present an estimated 34 million people worldwide are living with HIV or AIDS, 24 million of them in sub-Saharan Africa. In the year 2006 alone , 2.6 million people died of AIDS, the highest rate since the start of the epidemic. That is why HIV/AIDS is considered as one of the major threats to mankind and people should be enlightened about HIV-AIDS connection. Many researchers however debate about the vital connection between HIV and AIDS. However the connection of HIV and AIDS has widely been established and the Durban Declaration of 2000 tries to reaffirm that.


The most basic HIV-AIDS connection is that AIDS or Acquired immune deficiency syndrome or acquired immunodeficiency syndrome is a conglomeration of symptoms and infections while these symptoms and infections are caused by HIV or human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) in humans. The Durban Declaration of 2000 was made in response to the statement by South African President Thabo Mbeki which question the relation between HIV and AIDS.

The historic Durban Declaration was a document which signed by over 5,000 scientists and physicians and which affirmed the HIV/AIDS hypothesis. The signatures on Durban Declaration was made on the 2000 International AIDS Conference held in Durban, South Africa. The signatories of Durban Declaration were 5,00 scientists among whom 11 were Nobel prize winners The entire text document of Durban Declaration in the journal Nature in July of 2000.

The Durban Declaration was also drafted in response to South African President Thabo Mbeki`s decision earlier that year to include prominent AIDS dissidents among a scientific panel to a debate over the HIV/AIDS hypothesis. The widely publicized Durban Declaration generated a great deal of media attention at the time.

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