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WORLD AIDS DAY
Activists, health workers, celebrities mark World Aids Day
December 2, 2003
BEIJING, China — Activists and health workers walked, ran, taught and rallied
Monday to mark World AIDS Day, drumming up support for the
continuing battle against a still-incurable disease that ravaged a
record number of people in 2003.
In China, the government says at least 840,000 people are
HIV-positive and fears 10 million might become infected by 2010
without proper prevention.
Premier Wen Jiabao visited the AIDS ward at a Beijing hospital
to show support, and health workers were dispatched to construction
sites and schools throughout the capital to teach AIDS prevention.
"Migrant workers are an at-risk group," said Li Xiaohong of the
Beijing Center for Disease Control, which volunteered some of its
staff for the effort. "They only know that condoms can prevent
pregnancy."
In India, where an estimated 4 million people have been infected
with HIV, actor Richard Gere spent a week mobilizing local sports
stars and celebrities from the country's film industry to campaign
against the spread of the disease in South Asia.
A recent U.S. government report predicted the number of
HIV-positive people in India could jump to between 20 million and
25 million by 2010 -a figure the Indian government rejects.
More than 2,000 students joined a "walk for life" rally in New
Delhi, the capital. In Bombay, volunteer groups planned
exhibitions, street plays and seminars as part of what they said
was a week-long campaign to "fight the stigma and discrimination
against AIDS victims."
AIDS, first diagnosed in 1981 and originally called gay related
immune disorder, or GRID, attacks the human immune system. There is
no known cure, though various treatments have worked to
significantly extend the lives of AIDS patients.
The United Nations said last week that more people than ever
died or were infected by HIV/AIDS in 2003, with 3 million deaths
and another 5 million cases of infection.
Globally, between 34 million and 46 million people are believed
to have the virus, although accurate numbers are still hard to come
by because of shortfalls in reporting and poor health care in many
countries.
And in the developing world, the vast majority of HIV and AIDS
sufferers don't have access to life-extending antiretroviral drugs
because of their high cost, the World Health Organization said.
Monday, the agency launched a global drive to provide AIDS drugs to
3 million people by 2005, using a simplified version of the drug
"cocktail" that can turn the disease into a chronic ailment instead
of a death sentence.
In Africa, only 2 percent of the people who need the drugs get
them, WHO said.
Indeed, the steady advance of HIV and AIDS in Africa is
devastating rural households, the Rome-based Food and Agriculture
Organization said.
"HIV/AIDS strikes indiscriminately, but the poorest rural
communities and households are always hit hardest," said Sissel
Ekaas, the director of FAO's Gender and Population Division.
"For women who have lost a husband to the disease, it can mean
losing everything else as well - property or assets, such as land,
farm equipment or livestock, effectively undermining their capacity
to earn an income and grow food to feed themselves, their children
and the orphans they are often caring for," she said.
The most-affected African countries could lose up to 26 percent
of their farm labor force, the FAO said.
In Phnom Penh, the capital of Cambodia, which has the highest
rate of HIV infection in Southeast Asia, some 1,000 people wearing
white caps and T-shirts adorned with educational AIDS slogans
participated in a rally held in the city center.
After sobering speeches, performers deployed colorful wooden
cutout figures to represent infected people. "I'm HIV-positive, but
why do you regard me as animal?" read one cutout. "I'm
HIV-positive, but you can kiss me without getting infected," read
another.
Some 160,000 of Cambodia's estimated 13 million people are
HIV-positive or living with full-blown AIDS. Up to 90,000 infected
people have died since the first case of the disease here was
discovered more than a decade ago.
In Malaysia, Marina Mahathir, president of the Malaysian AIDS
Council, said people in her country were reluctant to acknowledge
the disease was a threat even though Malaysia currently has 57,000
reported HIV/AIDS cases. Most stem from drug addicts who share
infected needles.
"What's alarming is the level of denial in Malaysia," Marina,
the daughter of former Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad, said at an
exhibition launched in conjunction with World AIDS Day. "Malaysians
think we will never become like Africa. That is simply not true."
Across Europe, a host of events were planned for Monday,
including candlelight vigils in several British cities and the
Swedish capital of Stockholm, as well as workshops and parades in
Turkey and Portugal.
Of nearly 8,000 businesses in 103 countries surveyed for a World
Economic Forum's Global Health Initiative report released Monday,
47 percent felt that HIV will have some impact on their business.
Thirty-six percent of business leaders did not - or could not -
estimate how many of their employees had HIV.
"Just as the efforts by most governments have been insufficient,
the overall private sector response to date is inadequate," said
Kate Taylor, director of the initiative. "A great deal more needs
to be done." –Sapa-AP
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