Activists sought yesterday to keep the battle against HIV in the public eye on World AIDS Day in the face of growing complacency amid progress in treating and slowing the spread of the disease.
Even the Miss World beauty pageant on the Chinese holiday island of Sanya was enlisted to get out the message that the disease kills some 6,000 people daily.
Chinese President Hu Jintao (胡錦濤) appeared on the front page of major state-controlled newspapers shaking the hand of a woman HIV carrier the day after the UN warned up to 50 million Chinese were at risk of contracting HIV/AIDS.
PHOTO: HO YU-HUA, TAIPEI TIMES
Dec. 1 has become a time of grim stocktaking as AIDS campaigners worldwide sound the alarm over the disease's rampage through Africa, the threat it poses to Asia and former Soviet republics and the risks to vulnerable communities such as sex workers, drug users and gay men.
In Australia, campaigners warned that complacency after earlier success in fighting HIV/AIDS risked giving rise to a new wave of infections.
"This is the moment it all could go astray. This is the moment when it can become a pandemic," said Vince Lovegrove, an AIDS awareness educator, while calling for a new campaign aimed at a new generation.
Government figures show that by the end of last year, 26,267 Australians had been diagnosed with HIV and 10,l25 people had been diagnosed with AIDS, with 6,723 having died.
Last month, UNAIDS announced that the prevalence of HIV or AIDS -- the percentage of the world's population living with the HIV virus or the disease it causes -- peaked in the late 1990s.
It also reduced its estimate of the number of people living with HIV or AIDS to 33 million from nearly 40 million after overhauling data collection methods.
The tally of new infections has fallen, too, to an estimated 2.5 million this year from 3 million in the late 1990s.
Meanwhile, the agonizing effort to bring antiretroviral drugs to Africa, where more than two-thirds of people with HIV/AIDS live, is now bearing fruit.
At the end of last year, more than 2 million people were getting the vital pills, a 54 percent increase over the previous year, the WHO said.
The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria said on Friday the number of people on antiretroviral (ARV) drugs it is funding has doubled in the past year to 1.4 million.
"Despite substantial progress against AIDS worldwide, we are still losing ground," says James Shelton of the US Agency for International Development (USAID) in a commentary appearing in medical journal The Lancet yesterday.
He says treatment is still only available to about 10 percent of those in need, while in developing countries, "the number of new infections continues to dwarf the numbers who start antiretroviral therapy in developing countries."
Indonesia -- which the UN says has the fastest growing HIV epidemic in Asia -- marked the day with the launch of its first national campaign to promote the use of condoms, which account for less than 1 percent of contraception use.
The campaign in the world's most populous Muslim nation aims to remove the stigma of condom use.
Stigma is also a concern for campaigners in South Korea, where the number of HIV/AIDS cases stood at 5,155 as of the end of September, the Korea Center for Disease Control and Prevention said.
The rate of new infections has been falling from 14.2 percent in 2004 to 11.5 percent in 2005 and 10.4 percent last year.
But experts cautioned the real number of HIV/AIDS infections would be much higher as South Korea has a strong social prejudice against the disease.
"Fixing the social prejudice is almost as urgent as fighting the disease itself," said professor O Myung-don of the Seoul National University Hospital.
Chinese Health Minister Chen Zhu (
To raise awareness of the disease UNAIDS and the China Red Cross Foundation have organized the "Great AIDS Walk" on the Great Wall today.
Taiwan last night blanked world No. 1 Japan 4-0 to win the World Baseball Softball Confederation’s (WBSC) Premier12 for the first time. Taiwanese ace Lin Yu-min (林昱珉) held defending champions Japan to just one hit and no runs in the first four innings, before catcher Lin Chia-cheng (林家正) opened the fifth inning with a solo home run. That was soon followed by a three-run homer from Taiwanese captain Chen Chieh-hsien (陳傑憲) to put Taiwan ahead in the prestigious tournament of the world’s top 12 baseball teams. In addition to a superb performance from 21-year-old Arizona Diamondbacks prospect Lin, three more Taiwanese pitchers
Taiwan yesterday advanced to the gold medal match of the World Baseball Softball Confederation’s (WBSC) Premier12 for the first time in history, despite last night losing 9-6 to Japan. Taiwan advanced after the US defeated Venezuela in the first game on the last day of the Super Round. However, the US had no chance of advancing to the championship game unless it defeated Venezuela by at least nine points. The US won 6-5. As a result, the two teams — who both had one win and two losses in the Super Round — are to face off again in the
BUDGET WOES: KMT lawmakers said they would propose cutting or eliminating the entire funding for the sub project, while a TPP legislator said she would opt to freeze it The harbor acceptance test (HAT) for the Hai Kun (海鯤), or “Narwhal,” an indigenous defense submarine (IDS) prototype, is nearly complete and the vessel is expected to be delivered to the navy before the end of next year as scheduled, the navy said yesterday. The HAT for the IDS prototype is 83 to 85 percent complete, Republic of China Navy Chief of Staff Vice Admiral Chiu Chun-jung (邱俊榮) told a meeting of the legislature’s Foreign Affairs and National Defense Committee. This would be followed by a sea acceptance test (SAT), which is expected to begin in April next year and conclude
NO CONDITIONS: Beijing’s calls on Washington to block a stopover by President Lai are ‘outrageous and unacceptable’ interference in US internal affairs, US lawmakers said Five US representatives on Friday called on US Secretary of State Antony Blinken to not impose conditions on President William Lai (賴清德) should he make a stopover in US territory during his trip to the South Pacific. The representatives also urged US President Joe Biden to “consider meeting personally with Mr Lai during his visit.” The letter was signed by US representatives Tom Tiffany, Andy Ogles, Chris Smith, Scott Perry and Lance Gooden about a week before Lai is scheduled to make his first official overseas visit since taking office on May 20. Lai is to travel to the Marshall Islands, Tuvalu and
RSS