Reuters Posted online: Wednesday, December 01, 2004 at 1245 hours IST
Beijing, December 1: The world's two most populous nations promised on Wednesday to eradicate ignorance about AIDS, a disease that was at first dismissed by many as a Western evil confined to drug users, homosexuals and prostitutes.
China, criticised for its slow initial response to HIV/AIDS, put on a public display of commitment on World AIDS Day to fighting a disease which the United Nations fears could infect 10 million Chinese by 2010.
In India, where over five million people have already been infected with HIV, the government said it would make greater efforts to promote awareness about the disease, especially in rural areas and among the youth.
The government will set up four special trains that will each contain an exhibition on AIDS and clinics to provide medical facilities. These will criss-cross the country, spreading awareness mostly in rural areas, said S.Y. Quraishi, head of India's National Aids Control Organisation.
"This is a youth problem because they are sexually most active and only they can solve this problem," he added.
Quraishi was speaking at a rally in New Delhi where thousands of schoolchildren wearing colourful caps with red ribbons held banners that read "Chastity-Weapon against AIDS" and "AIDS - Incurable but Controllable".
"The world can no longer afford to ignore the enormity of the HIV epidemic," Antonio Costa, executive director of the UN Office on Drugs and Crime, told an assembly in Beijing.
"The time has come to strike back at a killer that is transmitted by drug use and sex, as well as by ignorance and denial," he said before an audience waving large Styrofoam red ribbons, that have come to symbolise the fight against AIDS.
China's battle against the spread of HIV had been hampered by politics, but on Tuesday, President Hu Jintao shook hands with an AIDS patient and Premier Wen Jiabao called for "unremitting efforts" against the epidemic.
Across the world, activists and governments were due to mark the day with events drawing attention to the disease and promoting its eradication.
Khalid Malik, resident coordinator for the UN in China, praised the newfound zeal of China's leaders, but said the challenge now was to ensure their policies reached the villages.
"It is a society where there is still a lot of stigma, a lot of uneasiness about talking about sexual matters. These are large societal issues to confront," he said.
WOMEN AND GIRLS
Activists said attitudes toward women and gays were hampering efforts to fight the disease.
The finger in Cambodia, where the disease is thought to be spreading in rural areas, was pointed at straying husbands spreading AIDS among women and girls, now the most vulnerable group and the theme of this year's AIDS Day.
"I would like to send a message to those unfaithful husbands not to bring AIDS home to kill your innocent wife," said Dr Tia Phalla, head of the national AIDS authority.
In the tiny Pacific state of Papua New Guinea, where rape and multiple wives are common, estimates put the number of likely cases between 1 million and 1.5 million by 2015-2020 from 67,000, potentially wiping out a generation and destroying the economy.
"So far it seems many PNG men are treating this issue as a joke. It is they who are responsible for spreading HIV/AIDS and it is they who will destroy this nation's future," PNG's Post-Courier newspaper said in an editorial.
By contrast, in Thailand, a mass public awareness campaign in the 1990s has been credited with dramatically reducing the number of new HIV infections. Youngsters there were set to parade through shopping centres dressed as condoms to distribute condoms to teenagers.
But in neighbouring Vietnam, where there are an estimated 85,000 HIV cases, Health Minister Tran Thi Trung said stigma remained and in conservative Singapore activists said antiquated laws were hurting the fight against AIDS.
"Since gay sex is illegal, how then can any agency or organisation in Singapore promote safe sex among men ... without being complicit in abetting illegal activity?" said Stuart Koe, chief executive officer of Asian gay group, Fridae.com.
India has over 5.1 million people infected with HIV, the second-largest number after South Africa.
The two countries were playing a cricket test in Calcutta on Wednesday and a number of players were wearing red ribbons on their white uniforms, including Indian leg-spinner Anil Kumble and South Africa's captain Graeme Smith, all-rounder Jacques Kallis and paceman Makhaya Ntini.
China is ranked alongside India and Russia as countries outside Africa which are most at risk from AIDS.
The Chinese government estimates it has 840,000 people with HIV or AIDS, but some experts say there may be that many alone in the central province of Henan, as a result of a blood-selling scandal in the mid-1990s.
