HIV/AIDS
World Aids Day is being observed around the world on 1 December Chung Sung-Jun/Getty Images

People around the world are gearing up to observe World Aids Day on 1 December.

According to the World Aids Day website, an estimated 34 million people are living with HIV and more than 35 million have died from the disease.

This year's theme is "Focus, Partner, Achieve: An AIDS-free Generation".

IBTimes UK has compiled top ten quotes from prominent personalities to share on the day.

  • "HIV does not make people dangerous to know, so you can shake their hands and give them a hug: Heaven knows they need it." - Princess Diana
  • "Let us give publicity to HIV/AIDS and not hide it, because [that is] the only way to make it appear like a normal illness." - Nelson Mandela
  • "It is bad enough that people are dying of AIDS, but no one should die of ignorance." - Elizabeth Taylor
  • "We live in a completely interdependent world, which simply means we can not escape each other. How we respond to AIDS depends, in part, on whether we understand this interdependence. It is not someone else's problem. This is everybody's problem." - Bill Clinton
  • "I'm a firm believer that education is the most efficient tool we have to make people aware and make our children aware, and to protect them from the scourge of the century, which is AIDS." - Shakira
  • "We want the world to focus on children whose lives have been devastated by AIDS. The millions of children who are missing their parents; their childhood, their future but most importantly, they are missing YOU. Everyone can make a real difference. Your voice is needed in a global movement that can change their world." - Pierce Brosnan
  • "In today's climate in our country, which is sickened with the pollution of pollution, threatened with the prominence of AIDS, riddled with burgeoning racism, rife with growing huddles of the homeless, we need art and we need art in all forms. We need all methods of art to be present, everywhere present, and all the time present." - Maya Angelou
  • "Stigma hurts. Because of AIDS, children are bullied, isolated and shut out of school. They are missing out on education. They are missing out on medicines. Children are missing your love, care and protection. Join me. And become a stigma buster. UNITE FOR CHILDREN UNITE AGAINST AIDS" - Jackie Chan
  • "Everywhere I go, I see very much the same thing. I see the same compassion for people who live half a world away. I see the same concern about events beyond these borders. And, increasingly, I see the same conviction that we can and we must join together to stop the scourge of AIDS and poverty." - Bono
  • "Did you know children are dying because of AIDS. Missing the medicines that prevent transmission from mother to child. Missing the protection from parents teachers and role models that can teach them about the danger, and keep them safe from sexual exploitation. Children are missing your support. Unite for children. Unite against AIDS." - Whoopi Goldberg
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Princess Diana