KATHMANDU, Dec 1 (AFP) - Over 2,000 people joined a rally through the streets of Nepal's capital Kathmandu Sunday to mark World AIDS Day, organisers said.
Health workers, students, sex workers and people who have HIV or AIDS took part in the march, holding placards which read "Live and Let Live."
There are an estimated 58,000 people living with HIV and AIDS in Nepal, according to figures from UNAIDS -- the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS -- and so far 151 have died of the disease.
According to UNAIDS, an average of 30 people contract the disease every day in the Himalayan kingdom.
The government declared 2002 as HIV/AIDS Safety Year aimed at raising awareness of the disease.
Health Minister Upendra Devkota said the government had recently evolved a policy to deal with the disease.
"Under this policy, the National AIDS Council has been set up under the chairmanship of the prime minister," he said in a statement marking World AIDS Day.
"The ignorance and wrong notions prevailing in society about HIV/AIDS have added to the difficulties in dealing with disease-related problems."
He said prejudice had to be removed "in view of the urgency to root out the disease."
"Affected people should be rehabilitated and provided with opportunities of livelihood to enable them to live without social stigmas attached to their names," the minister said.
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