Culture & Society

The Pan Caribbean Partnership on HIV/AIDS (PANCAP) is established as HIV becomes the number one cause of death for 15-44 year-olds.

“We are threatened with extinction. People are dying in chillingly high numbers. It is a crisis of the first magnitude.”
- President Festus Mogae of Botswana.

“A tragedy of unprecedented proportions is unfolding in Africa. AIDS today in Africa is claiming more lives than the sum total of all wars, famines and floods, and the ravages of such deadly diseases as malaria.” – Nelson Mandela at the International AIDS Conference, Durban.

“We are normal. We have hands. We have feet. We can walk. We can talk. We have needs just like everyone else – don't be afraid of us – we are all the same!”
– 11-year old Nkosi Johnson, International AIDS Conference, Durban

“We need to look at the question that is posed, understandably I suppose: does HIV cause AIDS? AIDS the acronym stands for Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome. Now I do believe that is a sensible thing to ask: does one virus cause a syndrome? A virus cannot cause a syndrome. A virus will cause a disease.”
– Thabo Mbeki, President of South Africa, National Assembly, September 2000.

China’s first television advert for condoms is broadcast on World AIDS Day, but banned two days later.

“AIDS is not just a serious threat to our social and economic development, it is a real threat to our very existence, and every effort must be made to bring the problem under control.”
- Daniel Arap Moi, President of Kenya

The Australian Federal Court upholds the right of the Australian Army to expel a soldier with HIV.

Philadelphia is the first mainstream big budget Hollywood film made about HIV.

Russian ballet dancer Rudolf Nureyev dies of AIDS-related illnesses.