The lights on the Welcome to Fabulous Las Vegas sign were turned red for World AIDS Day.
Clark County Commissioner Tick Segerblom and representatives from Aid for AIDS of Nevada (AFAN) switched the light on in a brief ceremony at the iconic sign on the Las Vegas Strip south of Russell Road.
“We want to demonstrate our support to those fighting this disease, and what better way to do that than to turn the iconic Welcome to Fabulous Las Vegas sign red in support of World AIDS Day,” said Commissioner Segerblom, who also serves as a member of the Board of Health for the Southern Nevada Health District. “We also want to raise awareness of this issue and expand and strengthen the response to the worldwide effort to stop the spread of HIV/AIDS and ultimately to find a cure.”
“On World AIDS Day, people unite in the fight against HIV and celebrate accomplishments made in prevention and treatment,” said Antioco Carrillo, AFAN’s executive director. “AFAN’s goal is to help expand the availability and accessibility of prevention tools to ensure that every person with HIV receives treatment to reduce their viral load to undetectable levels. We commemorate those we lost and remember that it is within our reach to ensure the next generation does not have to continue the fight against HIV/AIDS.”
Held annually on Dec. 1, World AIDS Day is a global effort to unite in the fight against HIV, celebrate the accomplishments made in prevention, and commemorate those affected by AIDS-related illness. Founded in 1988, World AIDS Day was the first-ever global health day. HIV continues to be a major global public health issue, having claimed 40.1 million lives so far.
In 2021, about 650, 000 people died from HIV-related causes and about 1.5 million people acquired HIV. More than 11,000 people in Clark County are living with HIV and 441 were newly diagnosed in 2021. Over the last 5 years, an average of 420 people were diagnosed with HIV annually in Southern Nevada.
More than $90 million has been spent on local HIV/AIDS support through Clark County-allocated Ryan White grants since 2006.
The welcome sign was created in 1959 after the Clark County Commission approved funding for the project on what was then Highway 91. Submitting the lowest qualified bid was Western Electric Display, Inc. (aka “Western Neon”), purchased by YESCO in the 1960s.
The design, characteristic of the Googie architecture movement, was created by Betty Willis. The 25-foot-tall sign was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2009, Clark County’s centennial year. The sign, like the rest of the Las Vegas Strip, is in unincorporated Clark County.
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