The Associated Press - December 1, 1999
Andrew Selsky, Associated Press

"I have no idea of what my father looked like, what his voice or footsteps sounded like," Andrew Jackson Okrut of Uganda told a U.N. symposium in New York.

In a report released Wednesday, U.N. officials estimated that 11 million children have already been orphaned by the pandemic and that the number will reach 13 million by the end of next year.

"Things will get worse before they get better," said Dr. Peter Piot, executive director of UNAIDS.

It is almost unfathomable to think things could get worse in sub-Saharan Africa, home to 95 percent of AIDS orphans.

Eastern and southern Africa account for only 4.8 percent of the world's population, yet comprise over 50 percent of the 33.6 million people infected with the virus that causes AIDS. The regions account for 60 percent of AIDS deaths, U.N. data shows.

In Nigeria, HIV, the virus that causes AIDS, is estimated to infect a new person every minute. By 2003, an estimated 4.9 million Nigerians aged 15-49 are expected to be infected with HIV, compared to about 2.6 million today, according to a Nigerian report released Wednesday.

With an estimated 1,700 Zimbabweans dying of AIDS every week, President Robert Mugabe has pushed a 4 percent "AIDS levy" on personal income and corporate taxes that takes effect Jan. 1.

"This is a disaster devastating our society," Mugabe said Wednesday.

"We have to assist the many orphans who have been left behind."

Dr. Luc Montagnier, the French co-discoverer of the HIV virus, warned in Paris that an effective AIDS vaccine could be 30 years away unless governments encourage wider research.

From Europe to Asia, activists used sometimes serious and sometimes silly methods to attract attention to the fight against AIDS.

In South Africa, where an estimated 4 million people have HIV, a police helicopter dropped thousands of foil-wrapped condoms on a crowd in Pretoria's main square.

Some South Africans brushed aside the stigma associated with AIDS and went on national radio to say they were infected and to beseech others to practice abstinence or safe sex.

Bulgarian Red Cross workers dressed in condom costumes handed out prophylactics to passers-by in the town of Varna.

In Bangkok, Thailand, a person dressed as a bright orange condom with a smiley face passed out free condoms to passengers on a city bus.

Widows and AIDS patients in the Cambodian capital made impassioned pleas for men to stop patronizing brothels and to start using condoms. Cambodia, with an estimated 200,000 people believed infected with HIV, has the highest reported infection rate in Asia.

In China, taboos were being broken as the government launched an AIDS awareness campaign. The country's news media, which is government controlled, is trying for the first time to initiate public discussions about sex and sexually transmitted diseases.

The first-ever condom advertisement appeared on Chinese television Sunday. The commercial ends with a catchy rhyme in Mandarin Chinese: "Condoms, no troubles."

There's urgency in the move. While the number of infected people is relatively low, experts warn the world's most populous country may be devastated by AIDS in the next century.

The World Parliament of Religions opened an eight-day conference in Cape Town by calling attention to the global AIDS fight. An AIDS memorial quilt bearing the names of 1,000 victims of the disease was unfurled in a park.

"We wanted to make a clear gesture to say AIDS is a terrible problem throughout the world," said Jim Kenney, the organization's chairman.

Meanwhile, South African National Assembly Speaker Frene Ginwala unveiled a giant red ribbon draped across the entrance to Parliament.

If the spread of AIDS is not contained, South Africa's hopes for progress in the post-apartheid era will be dashed, she said.

"We will not only be stalled in our efforts to progress, we will also move backwards as time goes on," she said.

Speaking in Paris, William Magkoba of South Africa's Medical Research Council appealed for optimism.

"Europe was once in turmoil because of the Black Death, but that was followed by the European Renaissance," he said. "Some of us compare that period with the one now in Africa. We must be positive."
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