PARIS, Dec 1 (AFP) - Developing countries led by China and backed by sports and movie stars attacked stigma on World AIDS Day on Monday, as the United Nations pleaded for support to distribute HIV drugs to three million poor by 2005.
Less than a week after two UN agencies singled out China as among the next big targets in the fast-spreading pandemic, Chinese Prime Minister Wen Jiabao staged a meeting, reputedly the first of its kind at this top level, with AIDS patients.
"Premier Wen talked with three patients that were representing other AIDS patients," a spokesman at Ditan Infectious Diseases Hospital in Beijing told AFP.
"He shook hands with them and made some inquiries about their lives and their families and he encouraged them to be brave and fight the disease."
The World Health Organisation (WHO) and UNAIDS last week estimated that by the end of this year, 40 million people will be living with AIDS or the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) that causes it.
Three million people will have died this year -- the equivalent to a fully-laden jumbo jet crashing every 90 minutes or so -- and five million others will have become infected.
China, India, Russia and Indonesia were named as major countries that could follow Africa, home to three-quarters of HIV/AIDS victims, down the path to disaster.
Their report warned that official indifference, denial, social taboo and discrimination enabled HIV to leap out of "risk" groups such as prostitutes and intravenous drug users and enter the population mainstream.
Wen's visit climaxed a series of initiatives in recent months in which China has started to release more credible figures about the state of its pandemic and cautiously started to promote condom use for safer sex.
In India, where the government on Sunday unveiled a programme to provide free HIV medication to some of its 4.58 million people with the disease, the stars of Bollywood joined World AIDS Day to promote safer sex and open talk about AIDS.
"We have to educate people to fight it and prevent its menace. We cannot be proud of the fact that India is the second largest country suffering from AIDS," said popular Hindi-language star Fardeen Khan.
In Pakistan, where the infection rate is low but risks are high, World AIDS Day was commemorated by a candlelit vigil and parades by doctors and health workers in the port city of Karachi.
Pakistani and New Zealand cricketers vowed to wear red ribbons during a one-day international match in Lahore to show support for people with HIV/AIDS.
Saudi Arabia, which traditionally shuns open discussion of the disease, acknowledged that it had 6,787 cases of HIV or AIDS -- nearly five times higher than the last time the tally was reported, in August 2002. Nearly four-fifths are foreigners.
South Africa, the country worst hit by AIDS, marked World AIDS Day with the culmination of its biggest-ever awareness drive and events with top personalities, including Nobel laureate Bishop Desmond Tutu and UNAIDS chief Peter Piot.
About 5.3 million South Africans out of a population of 44.8 million are infected with HIV or AIDS, more than any other country in the world.
But a combative, conservative tone was struck by the Vatican, which called on governments to reject anti-HIV campaigns "that encourage immoral hedonistic lifestyles and behaviour and help spread AIDS."
Chastity remains the best protection against the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), the Holy See's health minister, Cardinal Javier Lozano Barragan, said.
In Geneva, the WHO and UNAIDS called on Monday for help to realise an ambitious programme to provide antiretroviral drugs to three million people in developing and transition countries by the end of 2005.
WHO Director General Jong-wook Lee said the pandemic was perhaps "the toughest health assignment the world has ever faced."
"The lives of millions of people are at stake. This strategy demands massive and unconventional efforts to make sure they stay alive."
The so-called "3 by 5" initiative is estimated to cost about 5.5 billion dollars (4.6 billion euros) but even if it is achieved, it will still only address roughly half of the people with HIV who are poor and in need.
Health experts say an unprecedented effort is needed to build medical infrastructure, especially in sub-Saharan Africa, to ensure the pills are distributed quickly, fairly and efficiently to diminish the risk of black markets and drug resistance.
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