Fatick, Senegal: Schoolchildren in Senegal pledged to abstain from sex and Indian village women cast off a veil of shame about their HIV status as World Aids Day was marked around the globe yesterday.
About 40 million people worldwide are now 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 per cent of the world's population, suffers over half of its infections and one in every 14 African adults is estimated to be carrying HIV, according to the UN.
Heavily Muslim Senegal is a relative bright spot on the continent, with only about one per cent of the population infected. Yesterday, dozens of children packed into a schoolhouse in the central town of Fatick to learn more about the disease, with many vowing to keep up the fight against transmission of the virus.
"Our teacher told us that Aids is a very dangerous disease," said 13-year old Aissatou Niang. "Only abstinence can save us," she said as her schoolmates giggled nearby.
"I've decided to wait until I'm 19 to have a relationship," said Awa Sarr. "When I go back home I'll tell my brothers and sisters about Aids, that's why we're here."
Such frank talk among African children is likely to cheer anti-Aids campaigners, who say science can help treat those with HIV, but ignorance or taboos surrounding it means Aids is hard to halt and treat.
"The stigma is huge. And people don't even know of treatment so they're afraid to come out to test and know their status," said Karen Stewart, with the French aid group Medecins Sans Frontieres.
"But we want to say to people that HIV/Aids is not a death sentence, there is treatment, there is life after HIV," she said at a rally in Lagos, Nigeria.
In India, some 70 HIV-infected women stepped out of the shadows during a rally in Golaghat, a town in eastern Assam state.
"I'm happy many women have openly admitted to their HIV-positive status," said Jahnabi Goswami, 28. "Men with the disease need to follow suit."
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.
"The world faces a choice in the global response to Aids," said Peter Piot, head of the UN's Aids agency.
"We can either continue to accept that global efforts will fail to keep pace with the ever-increasing numbers of HIV infections and Aids-related deaths or we can recognise the exceptional global threat posed by Aids and embrace an equally exceptional response," he said.
But the day's events were cancelled by royal decree in Swaziland, among the most-infected countries and Africa's last absolute monarchy, because they clashed with a traditional ceremony.
Only a few dozen joined a procession in Nigeria's biggest city of Lagos.
"Since I believe I don't have it, I don't see why I should march," said Mufu Adebajo, a 22-year-old craftsman watching from his roadside stand. "Otherwise, people will think I have it."
Getting the message across
A South African child at an Aids awareness campaign at Trafalgar Square in London. The campaign was organised by the MADaboutART Action Group to highlight the need
for drugs to treat the disease which affects 40 million people worldwide.
