World Aids Day - Warning not to forget another pandemic which has claimed 35 million lives

Taoiseach Micheál Martin and Tánaiste Leo Varadkar join Minister Eamonn Ryan and Minister Stephen Donnelly at Dublin Castle to mark World Aids Day. Landmarks and buildings around Ireland are set to light up in red today to mark the day. Photo: Collins

Medical experts have warned that with the world’s attention focused on Covid-19, attention must be given to HIV which it refers to as “one of the most destructive pandemics in history”.

It comes as a new report, released for World Aids Day, by the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) and the World Health Organization (WHO)’s Regional Office for Europe, shows a 24% drop in the rate of newly diagnosed HIV cases between 2019 and 2020.