Important note: Information in this article was accurate in 1999. The state of the art may have changed since the publication date.

Reuters NewMedia - November 30, 1999
Patricia Reaney

From Cape Town to Calcutta, from London to Los Angeles, cities and nations planned ceremonies to focus attention on the epidemic and experts warned that complacency could erode any progress that has been achieved in combating it.

"We shouldn't think that AIDS is just a problem for the developing world," said Dr Peter Piot, the executive director of UNAIDS.

The latest figures released by the U.N. agency charged with fighting the disease, showed 95 percent of HIV sufferers live in poor countries, mainly in sub-Saharan Africa. Infection rates are expected to rise even further because of poor health systems, poverty and limited resources to halt the spread of the virus.

"There is a fatigue that people have about the problems of developing countries which tend to make them switch off," Derek Bodell, the director of the National AIDS Trust in London told Reuters.

"The enormity of the epidemic in developing countries makes people see it as just part of the myriad of disasters they see on their television screens," he added.

Antiretroviral drugs that have prolonged the lives of HIV sufferers in richer nations have also fostered a misconception that the virus is not as deadly as it once was.

AIDS experts emphasise that it is still a fatal disease.

Although deaths from AIDS in Western nations have decreased since new therapies became widely available there is no sign that new HIV infections are following the same trend.

"On the contrary, there is extremely worrying evidence that the advent of life-prolonging therapies may have led to complacency about the dangers of HIV, and that that complacency may be leading to rises in risky behaviour," the report added.

A study of gay men in San Francisco showed that in 1993-1994 over one third of them had unprotected sex. Many of the men also did not know if their partners were HIV positive.

In Britain, where the number of people living with HIV/AIDS has risen 30 percent in the last three years to 30,000, activists will bathe St Paul's Cathedral in red lights to mark World AIDS Day.

"We wanted a national landmark and thought St Paul's would be an ideal place," said Dennis Bird, the event co-ordinator.

As the lights flash on Sir Christopher Wren's London masterpiece on Tuesday evening, a drum will beat every six seconds -- the time it takes for a new infection to occur somewhere in the world.

World AIDS Day activities in many countries will also focus on teenagers who have never known a world without AIDS and the 11.2 million children orphaned by the disease.

A poll by MTV: Music Television, which is broadcasting special programmes on December 1, showed teenagers have a surprising lack of knowledge and concern about HIV/AIDS.

Twenty-seven percent of the 896 MTV viewers in 11 countries who participated in the survey claimed they knew nothing about the virus.

Thirty-six percent of the 16-24-year-olds thought only intravenous drug users could get AIDS, 17 percent said only promiscuous people could be infected and 15 percent believed said it was a disease only homosexuals had.

Thirteen percent thought HIV/AIDS could be transmitted through kissing and most shockingly 10 percent said there was nothing to worry about because there is now a cure for AIDS.
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