Associated Press - Sunday December 1, 2002
Tini Tran, Associated Press Writer

Bearing banners and signs, thousands took to the streets in Hanoi and Bangkok on Sunday to promote AIDS awareness. India staged a marathon to raise public knowledge of HIV/AIDS, while Beijing's imposing legislative hall hosted an awareness event.

Officials also delivered messages of tolerance and compassion toward HIV/AIDS victims, who often suffer from discrimination because of their illness.

"Silence is death when it comes to fighting HIV/AIDS," said Jordan Ryan, the U.N. resident coordinator in Vietnam, at a rally in Hanoi that drew 3,000 people. "It's time to tear down the walls of stigma and silence."

Outside of sub-Saharan Africa, the AIDS epidemic in Asia threatens to become the largest in the world.

The United Nations has estimated that at the end of 2001, 6.6 million people throughout Asia were living with HIV/AIDS, including about 1 million newly infected that year.

In India, where some 4 million people are infected with HIV, officials in the eastern city of Bhubaneshwar on Sunday unfurled a record-long 6-kilometer (3.7-mile) banner to mark World AIDS Day.

Printed with slogans about HIV/AIDS prevention, the banner was signed by some 100,000 people - mostly students campaigning to raise awareness.

The state-run National AIDS Control Organization held a rally in New Delhi, drawing more than 1,000 schoolchildren, who were later joined by adults in a "Run For AIDS" marathon.

Some Western health agencies warn the disease is spreading fast in India and the number could rise to 25 million by 2010, making the country home to the highest number of HIV/AIDS victims in the world.

Health experts have also sounded off warnings about China, saying the government, which has ignored the AIDS threat in the past, must take urgent action.

An estimated 1 million Chinese already have HIV and a recent U.N. report warned that it could spread to 10 million people by 2010.

In recent weeks, the Chinese leadership seems to be taking the threat more seriously. In Beijing, an AIDS awareness campaign was held Sunday at the Great Hall of the People - the seat of the national legislature where the most important political ceremonies are held.

Throughout China, there were rallies and exhibitions hosted by popular singers and actors. And on Saturday in Beijing, about 500 college students wearing matching yellow jackets turned out for an AIDS awareness bike ride organized by the Red Cross Society.

In Australia, Foreign Minister Alexander Downer announced new initiatives to deal with the HIV/AIDS epidemic within developing Asian nations.

Earlier in the week, the Australian Federation of AIDS Organizations warned Australia potentially faced a second wave of the HIV/AIDS epidemic, saying more Australians are infected with HIV than ever before - about 12,000 people.

Thousands danced till dawn Sunday in Singapore at a dance-party fund-raiser on the tourist island of Sentosa, expected to raise 250,000 Singapore dollars (US$142,000) for AIDS education and support programs.

Meanwhile, students in Hanoi marched around Hoan Kiem Lake alongside health workers and soldiers in the heart of the city during a citywide rally that drew 3,000 participants.

In Vietnam, there are an estimated 56,495 HIV carriers. There is growing concern that the disease is spreading rapidly among young people. In the first 10 months of this year, just over half of the newly reported infections were between the ages of 20 and 29.

Vice Minister of Health Pham Manh Hung said: "The fight against AIDS this year and in 2003 will focus on the fight against alienation and discrimination against the HIV/AIDS patients and their families. Step by step we will reduce it."

A prison in Thailand heeded the calls for compassion. To mark World AIDS Day, it opened its doors to family and friends of inmates in the final stages of the disease, the Bangkok Post newspaper reported Sunday.

The terminally ill prisoners would be allowed to have regular visitors during their remaining days at a makeshift 20-bed hospice at Bangkok's Lat Yao Prison, the newspaper said.

According to official estimates, there are nearly 900,000 people with HIV in Thailand.

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