Submitted by admin on Fri, 2005-12-02 09:00. ::
Schoolchildren in Senegal pledged to abstain from sex and village women in India cast off a veil of shame about their HIV status as World AIDS Day was marked yesterday around the globe.
"Our teacher told us that AIDS is a very dangerous disease," said 13-year-old Aissatou Niang, wearing a green Muslim headscarf. "Only abstinence can save us," she said as her schoolmates giggled nearby.
Such frank talk among African children is key, say anti-AIDS campaigners who emphasize science can help combat the disease, but ignorance or taboos surrounding its transmission means AIDS is hard to halt -- and treat.
Worldwide, 40 million people are infected with HIV, the virus that causes AIDS. Some 3 million of them are expected to die of AIDS this year. Africa, with only 10 percent of the world's population, suffers more than half of its HIV infections.
In India, some 70 HIV-infected women stepped out of the shadows during a rally in Golaghat, a town in eastern Assam state, to acknowledge they are living with AIDS and should not be shunned.
An estimated 5.1 million people are living with HIV in India -- the most in any single country except South Africa. Nigeria, Africa's most-populous nation, is third.
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