Latest World AIDS Day Stories

GENEVA (Reuters) - Naomi Watts, the Oscar-nominated actress who starred in King Kong and Mulholland Drive, was named on Monday as a special United Nations envoy on HIV/AIDS. UNAIDS said that in the role, Watts would "use her talent and profile to raise AIDS awareness and give greater voice to the needs of people living with HIV worldwide." The 37-year-old, born in Britain and raised in Australia, recently joined a UNAIDS mission to Zambia where she visited clinics, hospitals, schools...

LONDON -- Children affected by HIV/AIDS are being neglected and not receiving the care and support they need, UN health experts said on Thursday.By 2010, about 18 million children in sub-Saharan Africa will be orphaned by the illness but less than 10 percent who have already lost a parent are being helped.Although public health experts are pushing for universal access to life-saving drugs for all who need them, an estimated 4 million children with HIV/AIDS do not have access to...

By Rahul Sharma SINGAPORE (Reuters) - Asia marked World AIDS Day on Thursday with free condoms, mobile phone games and flag-festooned rallies aimed at promoting awareness of a disease that kills millions in rich and poor countries each year. The United Nations launched the annual event on Thursday by calling for an "exceptional response" to the threat and said that while adult infection rates had dropped in some countries due to increased use of condoms and changes in sexual behavior,...

LONDON (Reuters) - The MTV music channel, whose inception in 1981 coincided with the first reported case of AIDS, has made a film and released it to broadcasters for free on Thursday to educate young people about the epidemic.The feature-length "Transit" tells the story of eight young people whose lives are intertwined, and through a surprising twist highlights the danger of contracting the HIV virus even when it seems there is little risk.Spanning Russia, Mexico, Kenya and Los...

By Rahul Sharma SINGAPORE (Reuters) - Asia marked World AIDS Day on Thursday with free condoms, mobile phone games and flag-festooned rallies aimed at promoting awareness of a disease that kills millions in rich and poor countries each year. The United Nations launched the annual event on Thursday by calling for an "exceptional response" to the threat and said that while adult infection rates had dropped in some countries due to increased use of condoms and changes in sexual behavior,...

By Rahul SharmaSINGAPORE (Reuters) - Asia marked World AIDS Day on Thursday with free condoms, mobile phone games and flag-festooned rallies aimed at promoting awareness of a disease that kills millions in rich and poor countries each year.The United Nations launched the annual event on Thursday by calling for an "exceptional response" to the threat and said that while adult infection rates had dropped in some countries due to increased use of condoms and changes in sexual behavior,...

By Rahul SharmaSINGAPORE -- Japanese health workers gave out free condoms and a software firm in India was due to launch mobile phone games on World AIDS Day to promote awareness of a disease that kills millions in rich and poor countries each year.The United Nations launched the annual event on Thursday by calling for an "exceptional response" to the threat and said that while adult infection rates had dropped in some countries due to increased use of condoms and changes in sexual...

By Rahul Sharma SINGAPORE (Reuters) - Japanese health workers gave out free condoms and a software firm in India was due to launch mobile phone games on World AIDS Day to promote awareness of a disease that kills millions in rich and poor countries each year. The United Nations launched the annual event on Thursday by calling for an "exceptional response" to the threat and said that while adult infection rates had dropped in some countries due to increased use of condoms and changes in...

By Philip PullellaVATICAN CITY -- Pope Benedict said on Wednesday he felt close to victims of AIDS and encouraged efforts to find a cure for the killer disease but avoided the thorny issue of the Roman Catholic Church's ban on condoms."I feel close to those sick with AIDS and their families and I invoke for them the help and comfort of the Lord," he said in his comment for Thursday's World AIDS Day.However, the Pope sidestepped the Church's general position against condoms to stop...

BEIJING (Reuters) - China's health minister warned on Wednesday that the spread of AIDS could affect the nation's economic development and its "rise or decline," and stressed the need for strong prevention measures. Minister Gao Qiang said China aimed to keep the number of people infected by the HIV virus to below 1.5 million by 2010, a forecast sharply lower than some international estimates. "AIDS prevention work is an issue relating to the quality of the population, economic...