WASHINGTON, Dec 1 (AFP) - The international community on Wednesday turned the spotlight on the devastating and increasing impact of AIDS on women and girls to mark World AIDS Day.
In a message to China's 1.3 billion people, Prime Minister Wen Jiabao took another step back from the denial about AIDS that had gripped the country for years and had only begun to change in 2002.
China faces "a stark situation," Wen said bluntly.
He called for "still greater, substantial efforts" to stir public awareness about AIDS and the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV).
This would be backed by a nationwide mobilization of officials to implement "all preventive and control policies and measures," Wen said.
China officially estimates it has 840,000 people with HIV or AIDS, but many AIDS experts contend the true figure is much higher. Some estimates suggest the national tally could reach as high as 10 million by 2010 if little is done.
In India -- named alongside China and Russia as a plum target after the destruction wrought by AIDS in Africa -- Health Minister Anbumani Ramadoss announced that 1.5 billion condoms would be distributed nationwide, backed by an intense media campaign.
"We are going all-out, and within six months the whole country should know about HIV/AIDS and its implication," he told parliament.
Thousands of schoolchildren, health workers and recovered drug addicts carrying anti-AIDS banners marked the day with processions, with more than 15,000 taking part in a parade in the southern city of Bangalore alone.
Thousands also participated in rallies in Nepal to mark World AIDS Day, while health officials blamed a Maoist insurgency for the spread of the disease in the country.
In Bangladesh, more than 5,000 people, including sex workers and non-governmental organization staff, took part in a procession from the Bangladeshi parliament.
World AIDS Day aims to focus attention on one of the greatest perils facing humanity today.
The 2004 theme was the danger posed to women and girls, who now account for 47 percent of the 39.4 million people around the world living with HIV or AIDS, an increase of six percentage points since 1997.
In response to the news, US President George W. Bush unveiled a 15-billion-dollar Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief to fight the disease in more than 100 nations around the world, focusing on countries in Africa, Asia and the Caribbean, according to the US Agency for International Development.
In Europe, British Prime Minister Tony Blair pledged to make HIV/AIDS one of the priorities of his presidency of the Group of Eight top industrialized countries next year, and dubbed London's commitment to fighting the pandemic in Africa a "moral question."
Africa is home to nearly two-thirds of all those living with HIV or AIDS in the world -- some 25.4 million, according to UN figures -- and three-quarters of all female AIDS patients.
Many European countries staged exhibitions and seminars on ways of tackling sexual coercion, poverty, lack of rights and empowerment in a male society, which are the known drivers for spreading HIV and AIDS among women and girls.
That message was echoed by contestants at the Miss World competition, being hosted on the Chinese tropical resort island of Hainan.
"From the day we are born, we have no right to decide," said Miss Tanzania, 19-year-old law student Faraja Kotta.
"Girls cannot decide whether they want to go to school, cannot decide who they will marry, cannot decide when they will be sexually active. Girls have no right to education, they are always second place."
Church groups in Norway, Sweden and Switzerland were to stage services of solidarity for people with HIV/AIDS and candlit processions to remember those who have died from the scourge.
Around 3.1 million will perish from AIDS in 2004, the highest toll in any single year. More than 23 million people have have died since AIDS first emerged in 1981 as a disease that wrecks the immune system, leaving the body exposed to infection by other viruses and bacteria.
In Southern Africa, governments renewed their vows to promote prevention, tackle stigma and discrimination and speed up distribution of antiretroviral drugs which keep the virus at bay.
Malawi's President Bingu wa Mutharika said he hoped a million Malawians, in a population of 11 million, would go for voluntary HIV tests next year, and set the 2005 target of boosting the number of people in free antiretroviral programs from 9,000 to 80,000.
"It's ambitious and achievable," Mutharika said.
AIDS has driven life expectancy below 40 years in nine African countries: Botswana, the Central African Republic, Lesotho, Malawi, Mozambique, Rwanda, Swaziland, Zambia and Zimbabwe.
In Iran, meanwhile, health experts warned that the country's growing AIDS problem was shifting from drug users into the bedroom, and urged Islamic authorities to go further in breaking the taboo over talking about sex.
"The trend of transmission has changed from intravenous drug users to high-risk sexual behavior," said Minoo Mohraz, a doctor and specialist in Iran's official AIDS Association.
"People cannot afford to get married so young and are getting married older. The gap is being filled by more prostitution," she said. "AIDS is still largely a taboo, and policy makers have for a long time been in denial."
The ceremonial highlight of World AIDS Day was to take place in New York's Cathedral of Saint John the Divine, where UN Secretary General Kofi Annan and UNAIDS Executive Secretary Peter Piot were to attend an evening of music and remembrance.
A giant television screen in New York's Times Square was also to display a glowing map of the world, which will brighten as participants add a "virtual flame" to the fight against AIDS by logging on to the website www.lighttounite.org.
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