HIV/AIDS in global spotlight for World AIDS Day 2011

For this year's World AIDS Day, people around the world are doing everything from dancing in flash mobs to creating art exhibitions and lighting buildings in red. The annual event is an opportunity for activists to raise awareness, commemorate those who have passed on from the virus, and celebrate victories in treatment and prevention.

Here's a college student during a Nov. 30 event in Jammu, India - home to more than 2 million people who suffer from HIV/AIDS. Keep clicking to see what's going on elsewhere across the globe...

A woman puts condoms on a board as part of an awareness campaign in Seoul, South Korea.

Romanian medical students dance during a flash mob event to raise awareness of the risk of being infected with the HIV, at the main railway station in Bucharest, Romania, on Nov. 30, 2011. More than 10,000 people in Romania have AIDS, according to non-government organizations, but the actual number could be much higher as HIV testing is not popular among Romanians.

Indian school children make a formation in the shape of the red ribbon in Ahmadabad, India.

A mural in the shape of a tree contains names of people who have died at the Hillcrest Aids Center Trust care center on the outskirts of Durban, South Africa. A film opens on World AIDS Day featuring a soccer player infected with HIV, with cast members from Kenya, Nigeria and South Africa. Producers hope the movie will travel across the continent hardest hit by the disease.

Activists light candles in the shape of the red ribbon, the universal symbol of awareness and support for those living with HIV, in Katmandu, Nepal, Nov. 30, 2011.

Students prepare red ribbons for an AIDS themed art exhibition at a college in Suining, China, on Nov. 30, 2011.

Petitioners prepare to show a protest banner which reads "affected by AIDS" to journalists inside a medical clinic in Beijing on Nov. 30, 2011. Protesters include relatives of HIV or AIDS patients who contracted the virus through tainted transfusions. China will have about 780,000 people infected with the AIDS virus by the end of this year, according to state media - most having contracted it through heterosexual sex.

A mother from Henan, China, shows cards bearing a photo of her son, with the message, "I'm an AIDS victim, we want to live, we want safeguard judicial justice" while speaking to journalists inside a medical clinic in Beijing on Nov. 30, 2011.

Fireworks burst behind the Sydney Opera House, which was bathed in red light with a figure of two hands, in Sydney, Australia, on Nov. 30., 2011. Over 50 landmarks and iconic monuments around the world will turn red on Dec. 1, in support of the campaign.

An HIV-infected man lays in bed at the Hillcrest Aids Center Trust care center.

Candles are lit for Danish victims of HIV/AIDS in Nytorv, Copenhagen, Dec. 1, 2011.

This Chinese character ornaments spell "AIDS," creating a public installment in Shanghai, China.

Members of a chorus group walk on stage for an awareness event in Shanghai, China.

These kids attend school at Nyumbani Children's Home for children with HIV, in Karen on the outskirts of Nairobi, Kenya. The orphanage cares for over 100 children with HIV whose parents died of the disease and provides them with housing, care, and antiretroviral medicine to stem the progress of the disease.

Children play on the swings during recess at the Nyumbani Children's Home.

Fidel, 11, center-right, and Christopher, 3, center-left, sit with others during a break for tea inside the house which they share, at the Nyumbani Children's Home, on Nov. 30, 2011.

A mother of three, Tabitha Kioko, 40, has had HIV since 2006. Here, she is given a checkup by a doctor at a clinic run by Doctors without Borders in the Kibera slum of Nairobi, Kenya, on Nov. 30, 2011.

Lab technician Mercy Oluya tests blood samples for HIV at the clinic.

Children playing at the Nyumbani Children's Home, which depends heavily on foreign donations.

Nimrod is a child with HIV at the Nyumbani Children's Home.

Protestors in Pamplona, Spain - this banner reads, "I need medical care for 24 hours," in reference to planned cutbacks against municipal home-help services.

A group of nurses attend an AIDS awareness event held by local community on Dec. 1, 2011 in Shanghai, China.

Student activists in costumes to represent HIV/AIDS take part in a rally in Jakarta, Indonesia, Dec. 1, 2011.

A nurse supports a patient at the Hillcrest Aids Center Trust care center.

A man speaks with a sex worker during a World AIDS Day function in the red light area in Mumbai, India, Dec. 1, 2011.

Passersby pick up condoms during an AIDS awareness event in Shanghai, China.