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Chinese Health Workers Mark World AIDS Day

Posted on: Monday, 1 December 2003, 06:00 CST

By AUDRA ANG

BEIJING (AP) -- Activists and health workers rallied around the globe Monday to mark World AIDS day, seeking support for the continuing battle against a 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 his support, and health workers went 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 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, the virus that causes AIDS, the government says it plans to provide free antiretroviral drugs to AIDS patients - buying generic versions from domestic manufacturers at a low price. In the first year, the government plans to spend $44 million to cover 100,000 patients in the six worst-hit Indian states.

Across India, volunteer groups planned exhibitions, street plays and seminars for a weeklong campaign to fight discrimination against AIDS victims as the actor Richard Gere mobilized celebrities to campaign against the spread of the disease.

In Calcutta, hundreds of prostitutes carried torches and waved posters as they walked through the streets at midnight Sunday and held a rally in the red-light district, vowing not to have sex without condoms.

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.

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 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 hard to obtain because of shortfalls in reporting and poor health care in many countries.

In the developing world, the vast majority of people with HIV and AIDS don't have access to life-extending antiretroviral drugs because of the high cost, the World Health Organization said. The agency launched a global drive Monday 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 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 an 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.

Across Europe, 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.

Britain said it would double its funding to the U.N. AIDS agency next year to $10.2 million.

The Vatican, which has been criticized for its opposition to condoms, urged people to "step up prevention according to the doctrine of the Church, to practice the virtue of chastity."

Of nearly 8,000 businesses in 103 countries surveyed for a World Economic Forum's Global Health Initiative report released Monday, 47 percent felt HIV will have some impact on their business. More than a third did not - or could not - estimate how many 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."

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