HIV/AIDS

Around the world, nations marked the passage of the 21st annual World AIDS Day with a series of announcements and events. Despite the fact that the disease is no longer considered implicitly fatal when proper medical treatment is attained, a wide variety of concerns still surrounds the issue of HIV and AIDS.

In Paris, French First Lady Carla Bruni called for greater efforts to be made to prevent mother-to-child HIV transmission. The Elysee presidential palace sported giant red ribbons as President Nicolas Sarkozy's wife promoted the campaign through several media interviews.

"I am not a doctor or a scholar, or a politician," she wrote in the daily Le Monde on Monday. "I am just a woman troubled by the injustice of a world that has the knowledge and the medicine needed to prevent HIV transmission and death from AIDS."

Stamping out discrimination

There are currently 33.4 million people in the world living with HIV/AIDS, according to UNAIDS, the joint United Nations program on HIV and AIDS.

"I am pleased by the emphasis this year on upholding human rights," UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said in a statement.

"The work of community-based organizations will be more effective if not hampered by discrimination against people living with HIV and populations most at risk, including sex workers, drug users and men who have sex with men," Ban said.

In China, President Hu Jintao called on people not to discriminate against those with HIV.

You "must care more and better for AIDS patients and people living with HIV, and in particular guide society into not discriminating against them," Hu told AIDS prevention volunteers in Beijing.

Last year, Hu shook hands with AIDS patients in an effort to reduce the stigma surrounding those living with HIV/AIDS there.

Africa worst-hit

Sub-Saharan Africa is the area worst afflicted by HIV/AIDS, with 22.4 million estimated to have the disease, according to UNAIDS. The greatest problem is in South Africa, where an estimated 5.7 million people, almost 12 percent of the population, live with HIV/AIDS.

On Tuesday, South Africa's President Jacob Zuma announced that all HIV-positive babies in the country would receive anti-retroviral treatment.

It is part of a new set of "extreme" measures to bring the disease under control.

As part of the plan, women will also receive care earlier in their pregnancies in a bid to prevent transmission to newborns, Zuma said.

"This decision will contribute significantly towards the reduction of infant mortality over time," he said in his World AIDS Day speech on television.

The new leader also encouraged the use of condoms and regular AIDS tests.

"I am making arrangements for my own test. I have taken HIV tests before, and I know my status. I will do another test soon," he said. "I urge you to start planning for your own tests."

This serious approach to tackling HIV/AIDS is in stark contrast to a 2006 statement by Zuma, in which he admitted having taken a shower to prevent contracting the disease after having sex with an HIV-positive woman. He was head of the National AIDS Council at the time.

Germany with lowest infection rate in Western Europe

In Germany, meanwhile, the threat of HIV/AIDS remains, just like anywhere else. In 2008, approximately 3,000 people became infected with HIV, according to the Robert Koch Institute.

As the perception of the dangers posed by HIV/AIDS decreases, the risk of more infection rises, the Deutsche AIDS-Hilfe (German AIDS Help) organization warned. Risky sexual behavior is becoming more prevalent, with people having multiple sexual partners, the organization said. In cities such as Cologne, Hamburg and Berlin, transmission of the venereal disease syphilis is also on the upsurge, which in turn increases the risk of HIV transmission.

But with Germany currently having the lowest infection rate in Western Europe, the government is quite pleased.

"The fight against AIDS in Germany is exemplary," Federal Minister of Health Dr. Philipp Roesler said at the World AIDS Day event in Berlin on Monday. "The successful application of prevention techniques has established a strong precedent."

sjt/dpa/AFP
Editor: Louisa Schaefer