December 1 marks World AIDS Day, this year with the theme “Getting to Zero, end AIDS by 2030.” Here are some facts about AIDS, a disease that continues to be a major global public health issue more than 30 years after the virus that causes it was identified.

-At the end of 2014 there were 36.9 million people living with HIV around the world. That year same year, 2 million people became infected with HIV.

-Only 53 percent of people with HIV know their status.

-In 2014, around 1.5 million people died from HIV-related causes globally. The virus has taken more than 34 million lives so far.

-There is still no cure for HIV infection. However, according to WHO, "effective antiretroviral (ARV) drugs can control the virus and help prevent transmission so that people with HIV, and those at substantial risk, can enjoy healthy and productive lives.”

-By mid-2015, 15.8 million people were receiving antiretroviral therapy.

-There is hope. The number of new infections have fallen by 35 percent in the last 15 years. So did the number of deaths (24 percent).

-The most affected region is sub-Saharan Africa. Around 25.8 million people there live with HIV. It is also the region with the highest number of new HIV infections (around 70 percent of the global total of new HIV infections.)