Panafrican News Agency - December 2, 2001
Peter Kahler, PANA Correspondent
For some hours, the marchers kept the traffic moving at a snail's pace around the city.
It is this year that the Liberian society embarked on an unprecedented level of sensitization and awareness campaigns about the spread and dangers of the HIV/AIDS disease.
Condoms distribution, sporting events, multi-media messages on behavioural change, university and secondary school social clubs, awareness workshops and seminars for a broad spectrum of the society, including Muslim and Christian clerics, are among undertakings that marked the year.
The sensitization campaigns come against the backdrop of a citizenry that, according to Health Minister Peter Coleman, still see HIV/AIDS as a ""myth"" and are yet to embrace preventive measures.
Health authorities believe the disease is on the rise, but insist on the need for a national seropositive survey to establish the actual rate of prevalence in the country.
They put the rate of prevalence at 8.2 percent of the country's nearly three million population.
Increasing deaths occasioned by the scourge and persons testing positive for the disease have been indicators for health authorities' claim that the HIV/AIDS virus is on the rise in Liberia.
Statistics shows that most of those infected with the disease in are aged between 15 and 25, with females constituting the bulk of them.
There is no infirmary for those down with full-blown AIDS.
One medical practitioner, Dr Trueh Anderson, who claimed to have cured some victims of the disease had his licence revoked by the Health Ministry.
A court here later ordered the ministry to restore the licence for procedural errors in withdrawing the doctor's right to practice medicine.
The court, however, warned Anderson about claiming to have a cure for AIDS unless it was proven scientifically.
There is no known scientific research on the disease going on in Liberia, nor has there been disclosure about traditional efforts aimed at tackling the disease.
Resources scarcity has limited the role of the Liberian government in combating the spread of the AIDS virus in the country.
The task has been primarily left to the UN Country Theme Group on AIDS, international agencies and donors.
The government of Taiwan and the US Agency for International Development have both made millions of condoms available for free distribution to the population.
Since behavioural change through awareness is the primary method in combating the spread of HIV, campaigns to create the level public knowledge of the scourge need to be given maximum support from all quarters.
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