World Marks AIDS Day as Toll Rises
In Rome, taxi drivers distributed AIDS leaflets. Across Thailand, gas stations offered free condoms. In South Africa, Nobel Peace laureate Desmond Tutu went on TV to urge people to practice safe sex.
World AIDS Day was marked with renewed vigor globally Sunday after a U.N. agency reported an accelerating death toll, with nearly a quarter of the 6.4 million AIDS deaths to date occurring in the past year.
In 1996, 3.1 million people were infected with the human immunodeficiency virus, which causes acquired immune deficiency syndrome, bringing the total number of people with HIV or AIDS to 22.6 million, UNAIDS said.
The United Nations launched the Geneva-based UNAIDS as a special agency to help combat the disease. Scientists have worked frantically, but there is still no cure for the devastating illness.
Events marking World AIDS Day included a photo exhibit in a Beijing park; marches in Bombay, India; condom distributions in Thailand; and the lighting of a 20-foot tree in Tokyo bearing 12,000 red ribbons.
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