KATHMANDU, Dec 1 (AFP) - More than 10,000 Nepalese including actors and athletes marched through Kathmandu Saturday to raise AIDS awareness in a bid to stop the disease spreading.
The marchers, who were also joined by schoolchildren and activists, called for Nepalis to practice safe sex and carried placards saying "AIDS -- men make a difference" and "I care, do you?"
Marcher Rajib Kafle said the event on World AIDS Day was meant to "encourage people to come forward and speak about the problem and make people aware of it.
"People with HIV or AIDS should not be looked down upon by society," said Kafle, who was infected by a dirty drugs needle in 1998.
Government figures put Nepal's HIV/AIDS cases at 2,109, but independent estimates suggest the virus has infected more than 33,000 in the country.
The clients of prostitutes have the highest infection rate, according to official figures, followed by prostitutes themselves.
Intravenous drug users are the third largest group with HIV but officials fear this method of infection could be on the rise.
Independent figures show Nepal has more than 30,000 intravenous drug users, half of them living in the Kathmandu valley.
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