Important note: Information in this article was accurate in 1996. The state of the art may have changed since the publication date.
Important note: Information in this article was accurate in 1996. The state of the art may have changed since the publication date.
Reuters NewMedia, Inc. - Sunday, 1 December 1996, 07:32 P.M.
From Bangladesh to Britain and South Africa to San Francisco AIDS sufferers, health officials, civic and church leaders and anyone touched by the disease that knows no national, social, economic or racial boundaries wore red ribbons and participated in thousands of events.
In the sky above France, the country's air force acrobatic squandron drew a giant 1,5000 metre (5,000 foot) high red smoke loop in the symbol of the fight againt the disease.
"Everyone is concerned by AIDS, this is our way of taking part in the World Aids day," said squadron leader Victor Cousin.
Across the country a group of mayors handed out 100,000 free condoms and staged demonstrations and seminars in town halls.
In South Africa, giant red lights illuminated Cape Town's table mountain at sunset, and Archbishop Desmond Tutu urged his countrymen to take precautions and use condoms.
Sydney draped its spectacular harbour in red ribbons for the day and Rome taxi companies replaced their usual taped phone messages with information on AIDS helplines.
"AIDS is a global problem. No country or region is immune," Boutros Boutros-Ghali, secretary general of the United Nations, said in the statement.
"Today, some 22 million people are living with HIV/AIDS, while the total number of world-wide AIDS related death has reached six million. These are appalling statistics."
Princess Diana, long a supporter of AIDS sufferers, said the the alarming statistics reinforced the importance of education to ensure knowledge and understanding of the illness.
"And there is a continuing need to encourage compassion for people living with HIV (the virus that causes AIDS) their families and loved one," she said.
The United Nations has launched a special agency to help combat AIDS, the only disease with its own World Day, and scientists have worked frantically but there is still no cure for the devastating illness.
Despite promising advances in treatment, Sunday's international message stressed that prevention was vital and the best way forward.
To that end, galleries in New York, Vancouver, Sydney and Bristol, England provided free Internet access to information about the disease.
"This is no time for complacency. The epidemic is still spreading dramaticaly world-wide and with an estimated 8,500 people become newly infected every day," said Dr Peter Pio, Executive Director of UNAIDS.
In Germany, Frankfurt's city health office provided free AIDS tests and condoms, and in Berlin a group carrying a mock coffin on the city's underground rail network staged funerals at various stops in memory of the city's 2,400 AIDS victims.
Portions of a giant AIDS quilt, with more than 40,000 panels contributed from 40 countries ranging from Argentina to Zambia will be displayed in various U.S. cities and countries including Ireland, Guam, Australia, Mexico and Japan.
The quilt, which weighs 46 tons, was last displayed in its entirety in the United States in October when it took up an entire shopping mall.
Indonesia marked the day with concerts and a day-long festival, the Philippines held ballroom dancing and a walkatron and Vietnam staged huge rallies in Hanoi and Lang Son on the Chinese border, where drug abuse is a growing problem.
Top musicians in Zimbabwe, one of the African countries most ravaged by the epidemic, gave a concert to focus attention on the need for those infected to lead positive lifestyles. Sixty-three percent of people infected with AIDS live in Africa.
Dutch hairdressers commemorated the day by opening their shops and donating all their proceeds to AIDS research. Doctors in Rome put together a CD-ROM with information on AIDS aimed at 14-25 year olds which was distributed with the Italian newspaper Il Messaggero.
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