In 2017 Apple’s Product (RED) partnership has raised the equivalent of 144 million days of lifesaving AIDS medication.
That marks a new record for the company’s decade-long partnership with the AIDS charity and brings the grand total raised by the silicon valley giant to $160 million over the past 11 years.
Apple donates money to (RED) through a product partnership that lets customers buy Product (RED) versions of Apple’s best-selling gadgets and accessories.
This includes cases, Apple Watch bands and for a limited time the Product (RED) iPhone 7 which was released to commemorate the company’s 10-year partnership with the charity.
The charity doesn’t just partner with Apple, in fact it has over 21 different companies making special edition products.
(RED) has now reached a particularly impressive milestone which is that it has now raised $500 million towards tackling AIDS in Africa.
According to the World Health Organisation 36.7 million people live with HIV around the globe.
Some 20.9 million people now have access to lifesaving AIDS medication, up from 19.5 million last year and just 700,000 in 2000.
1 in 2 people living with HIV in Europe is diagnosed late and it continues to be the one region of the world where the number of infections is rising.
Despite that the wider news is much more positive with UNAIDS predicting that the number of babies born with AIDS could be down to zero by 2020. The dream however, and something that UNAIDS believes is possible, is the eradication of AIDS by 2030.