Zimbabwe to mark World AIDS Day

Zimbabwe would commemorate World AIDS Day on Dec. 1 with preparations to host the event in Bulawayo under way, The Daily Mirror reported on Wednesday.

The commemorations would start with the World AIDS Day week scheduled from Nov. 26 to 30 with a number of programs, said Nokutenda Xaba, the co-ordinator of the event from the National AIDS Council.

Among the programs, children who receive Anti-Retroviral Therapy are going to express their experiences on how HIV has affected their lives in an art exhibition. There will also be a film festival from Nov. 27 to Nov. 30.

"We have different HIV and AIDS films to be shown at Amakhosi and Bulawayo theaters, such as Yesterday and Philadelphia," Xaba said.

UNAIDS estimates there are 38.6 million people living with HIV, including 2.3 million children. Some 4.1 million people became newly infected with the virus in 2005.

In Zimbabwe, the total number of HIV-infected is about 1.6 million, with about 2,500 people infected the virus daily and 3, 000 die from the disease weekly.

Source: Xinhua