Mandela issues World AIDS Day plea

LONDON, England -- Nelson Mandela has marked World AIDS Day with a passionate plea for urgent action to fight the killer pandemic now estimated to be infecting 36 million people worldwide.

The former South African president called for safe sex, openness and compassion in a plea that carried a universal message.

He said in a World AIDS Day address: "Be faithful to one partner and use a condom. Let us take precautionary measures. Give a child love, laughter and peace, not AIDS.

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"We must recognize that for most of the time the pandemic was spreading like wildfire, we were in a state of denial about HIV-AIDS."

Campaigners around the globe planted flowers, organised condom convoys and smashed down walls on World AIDS Day to drive home the message that ignorance and complacency are fueling an epidemic.

The virus has cut through southern Africa, is firmly gripping Asia and is threatening to spread among wealthier nations that are able to buy expensive anti-viral drugs.

In addition to the 36 million now living with AIDS or the virus that causes it, the U.N. says 20 million others have been killed by the disease around the globe.

According to a U.N. report issued this week, it is expected that 3 million people will die from AIDS this year, 80 percent of them in Africa.

In Russia, some 30,000 people tested positive for HIV, the virus that causes AIDS, this year, the health ministry said -- almost as many as in the past 13 years combined.

The theme of the 13th World AIDS Day, a global campaign to improve public awareness of HIV and AIDS issues, is "men make a difference."

The campaign is aimed at sending a message to men and adolescent boys that multiple sexual partners, sex without a condom and lack of health care are recipes for disaster.

Often male infection leads to a deadly encounter for women, who are more susceptible biologically to HIV, according to UNAIDS, the world body's coordinating agency in the fight against the deadly virus.

U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan said: "Men can make a particular difference -- by being more caring, by taking fewer risks and by facing the issue of AIDS head-on."

Dr Peter Piot, the head of the UN agency leading the battle against the global epidemic, said: "Men are truly the driving force behind this epidemic.

"When it comes to injecting drug-use the majority are men, but also in terms of homosexual and heterosexual transmission it is male behavior that plays a dominant role. There is a need for major behavior changes when it comes to male sexual behavior."

Countries around the world are marking the event on Friday with concerts, marches and fundraisers aimed at increasing awareness of the disease.

St. Paul's Cathedral in London, the South African Parliament and the Sydney Opera House were bathed in red light to match the red ribbons worn around the world to show solidarity with AIDS victims.

Rock concerts were set to convey the message to young people -- one of the most vulnerable groups -- in Laos, Russia, the Ukraine, Belize and China.

"Condom buses" crawled through the streets of Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City in Vietnam distributing condoms. Caravans touting safe sex messages traveled through Romania, Niger and Chad and an AIDS awareness train reached remoter parts of China.

Sub-Saharan Africa, with 25.3 million HIV/AIDS sufferers, is the epicenter of the epidemic. AIDS-related diseases killed 2.4 million people in Africa this year -- more than those killed by war, famine and flood combined.

Experts now fear the epidemic is heading East and that China and India with their huge populations will be most vulnerable.

"We have a major challenge over the next five years as this virus moves into the large demographic countries of Asia," Gordon Alexander, senior program adviser for UNAIDS in India, said.

The U.N. says China is on the "fast track" to an AIDS epidemic. Its estimated 600,000 HIV/AIDS cases could grow to 10 million or more by 2010 unless the country acts decisively and soon.

Anti-retroviral drugs that prevent the virus from replicating in the body will also play a role. Progress was made in May when an initiative was announced to get drugs to the people who can least afford them.

International drug companies were set to announce a deal on Friday with Uganda to supply anti-AIDS drugs at reduced prices.

It is the second deal, after a similar pact with Senegal last month, in the initiative by five major drug companies to slash the prices of the drugs for poor African countries.

In Britain, where the number of people infected with HIV is on the rise, pop star Robbie Williams spearheaded high-profile efforts to raise awareness about AIDS.

"I've seen the way AIDS is tearing so many young lives apart, but I've also seen people fighting back -- spreading the word about prevention, looking after orphans, supporting each other," Williams, a goodwill ambassador for UNICEF, said.

Williams later manned a 50-ton crane to smash a wall as part of UNICEF's "Break The Silence" campaign.

International music channel MTV was broadcasting Staying Alive, a 30-minute documentary on HIV/AIDS hosted by singing sensation Ricky Martin.

The Associated Press & Reuters contributed to this report.

The Associated Press & Reuters contributed to this report.

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