Countries mark World AIDS Day

Awa Sarr, aged 13, and Aissatou Ndiaye, 14, make a list of the ways HIV can be transmitted during a school lesson on preventing AIDS in the town of Fatick, Senegal, on Thursday. PHOTO: AP

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.

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 percent of the world's population, suffers over half of the world's HIV infections.

Heavily Muslim Senegal is a relative bright spot on the continent, with only about one percent of the population infected. On Thursday, dozens of children packed into a schoolhouse in the central Senegal town of Fatick to learn more about the disease.

"Our teacher told us that AIDS is a very dangerous disease," said 13-year old Aissatou Niang, wearing a green headscarf.

"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 that ignorance or taboos surrounding its transmission and symptoms means AIDS is hard to halt -- and treat.

stepping out

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 that they are living with the disease and should not be shunned.

"I'm happy many women have paid heed to our call and have openly admitted to their HIV positive status," Jahnabi Goswami, 28, said.

"Men with the disease need to follow suit," she said.

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.

On Thursday, South African Deputy President Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka urged her countrymen to show their concern about AIDS throughout the year.

"Whatever good we do today, let us repeat it tomorrow, next week and in the coming months as we look forward to the years ahead," she said.

South Africa's government has been accused of responding sluggishly to the crisis. Life-prolonging anti-retroviral drugs only became available through the public health system last year in South Africa.