World AIDS Day: Candles holding rallies to create awareness

From lighting candles to holding rallies, people around the world will mark World AIDS Day on Saturday to raise awareness about the fight against HIV/AIDS and remember all those who have died from it.

The international event marks its 30th anniversary this year, with people across continents expected to hold campaigns and vigils and wear the symbolic red ribbons for the occasion.

Some 37 million people living with HIV around the world, according to the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS), which in July warned against complacency slowing the fight against the global epidemic.

In a report, the UN body said the global response to HIV/AIDS was at a "precarious point", adding that while treatment rates were rising and the number of deaths falling, "the success in saving lives has not been matched with equal success in reducing new HIV infections".

Death from AIDS has fallen to the lowest level this century, with fewer than 1 million people dying from AIDS-related illnesses last year, it said. But a funding crisis, prevention services not reaching vulnerable populations and discrimination remain worrying issues.

More than 77 million people around the world have become infected with HIV since the epidemic emerged in the 1980s, according to UNAIDS. Just under half, or 35.4 million people, have died from AIDS-related illnesses.

(With inputs from agencies.)