http://aolsvc.news.aol.com/news/article.adp?id=20051201050109990001Updated: 12:21 PM EST
U.N. Urges 'Exceptional Response' to AIDS Crisis
Nations Try to Raise Awareness on World AIDS Day
By Andrew Quinn, Reuters
JOHANNESBURG, South Africa (Dec. 1) -- The United Nations used World AIDS Day on Thursday to call for an "exceptional response" to the global crisis as African patients criticized politicians for failing to tackle a disease that kills millions each year.
The United Nations said that while adult infection rates had dropped in some countries due to increased use of condoms and changes in sexual behavior, the epidemic continued to grow.
The number of people living with HIV, the virus that causes AIDS, had reached its highest level ever in 2005 at an estimated 40.3 million people, UNAIDS Executive Director Peter Piot said. Nearly half of them are women.
AIDS has killed more than 3 million people in 2005.
"The lessons of nearly 25 years into the AIDS epidemic are clear. Investments made in HIV prevention break the cycle of new infections. By making these investments, each and every country can reverse the spread of AIDS," Piot said.
A number of Asian countries marked the day by handing out free condoms, offering mobile phone games and holding flag-festooned rallies to promote awareness of the disease.
The mood was more somber in Africa, where rage and remorse combined as the continent worst hit by the global crisis remembered its dead.
Sub-Saharan Africa remains ground zero for worldwide HIV/AIDS deaths as well as for new infections -- cutting life expectancy in many countries, leaving millions of children orphaned and reducing agricultural output in hungry countries.
The latest U.N. estimates say 26 million of the 40 million people infected with HIV worldwide live in Africa.
Quotes on World AIDS Day
''The lessons of nearly 25 years into the AIDS epidemic are clear. Investments made in HIV prevention break the cycle of new infections. By making these investments, each and every country can reverse the spread of AIDS.''
-- Peter Piot, executive director of UNAIDS","''On World AIDS Day, we renew our commitment to turn the tide against this disease. HIV/AIDS is a global health crisis -- it is also a daily burden for many of our families and neighbors and friends.''
-- President Bush","''Money that has been earmarked for HIV/AIDS has gone into everything else but AIDS. Organizations that say they are dealing with AIDS are always in seminars or workshops. ...You find them earning daily allowances of $50 for sitting in a room discussing us. Is this fair?''
-- Meris Kafusi, AIDS patient in Tanzania","''Because of this publicity, I really feel I learned something about the harm of AIDS and I will share what I learned with my co-workers, friends and relatives.''
-- Li Hongjian, a worker at a Chinese construction site where condoms were handed out to mark World AIDS Day","''In Korea, people tend to think AIDS is a problem that has nothing to do with them. People's awareness of the disease is really needed here.''
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"Money that has been earmarked for HIV/AIDS has gone into everything else but AIDS," fumed Meris Kafusi, a 64-year-old AIDS patient in Tanzania who only recently began receiving life-prolonging antiretroviral (ARV) drugs.
"Organizations that say they are dealing with AIDS are always in seminars or workshops. They should be buying food for widows and orphans ... but instead of that, you find them earning daily allowances of $50 for sitting in a room discussing us. Is this fair?"TALKING ABOUT SAFE SEX
Political leaders say taboos need to be broken to tackle AIDS.
In France, President Jacques Chirac said schools should be equipped with condom vending machines and youths should be able to buy a condom for 20 euro cents.
Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh called on his people to shed their inhibitions and start talking openly about safe sex.
"This, quite obviously, has to change if we are to succeed in creating awareness of the hazards of unsafe sexual practices," he told a gathering of young political leaders.
India says it has 5.13 million people living with HIV/AIDS, the second largest number after South Africa.
China's government, worried that the spread of AIDS could damage the country's economic development, was due to launch an AIDS awareness campaign to educate millions of migrant workers -- farmers who flock to cities in search of higher-paying jobs.
Health Minister Gao Qiang said on Wednesday that China aimed to keep the number of people infected by HIV virus to below 1.5 million by 2010, a forecast sharply lower than the World Health Organization (WHO) estimate of 10 million if nothing is done.
The WHO's chief China representative, Henk Bekedam, said China had made some making progress in slowing the rise in infection rates.
"What we have seen over the past three years is that China has taken action, and we do believe that this is now an old figure," he said, referring to the 10 million figure.
Estimates of AIDS' extent in China, which was long secretive about the disease, are clouded by uncertainty and controversy.
WORK TO BE DONE
But the anti-AIDS message is still falling on deaf ears in some parts of the world.
Health workers in red caps and blue jackets with the words "Stop AIDS" on the back stood in front of Tokyo's Shibuya station handing out packages containing condoms, information about AIDS testing and red plastic bracelets.
But when a health worker approached one group of high school boys, they laughed in an embarrassed way and waved her away. Japan is worried that increased sexual activity among teenagers could spark a rise in AIDS cases.
In southern Africa, Swaziland's King Mswati, criticized for his lavish lifestyle and frequent marriages in a country with one of the world's highest HIV rates, scrapped AIDS Day events on Thursday to attend to other royal functions.
With contributions from Kamil Zaheer in New Delhi, Elaine Lies in Tokyo, Chris Buckley in Beijing, Kerstin Gehmlich in Paris
12/01/05 11:12 EST
HIV ANONYMOUS
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