NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) — Tens of thousands of activists and
health workers rallied worldwide yesterday to mark World AIDS Day,
and officials hailed new initiatives, new funding and a new pill to
fight the disease that has infected 40 million people and kills
more than 8,000 every day.

The World Health Organization and UNAIDS promised cheaper drugs,
simpler treatment regimens and more money as part of a campaign
launched in Nairobi to provide 3 million HIV-infected people with
the latest drugs available by the end of 2005 in a $5.5 billion
effort.

WHO also certified an innovative, generic drug for treating HIV
that combines three essential anti-retroviral drugs into one pill
to be taken twice a day. WHO and UNAIDS promised to promote
international agreements to streamline treatment programs.

“In two short decades, HIV/AIDS has become the premier
disease of mass destruction,” said Jack Chow, the assistant
director-general of WHO. “The death odometer is spinning at
8,000 lives a day and accelerating.”

Medecins Sans Frontieres, an aid agency that has led efforts to
simplify HIV treatment, welcomed the announcement but said funding
will be critical.

“The treatment has to be free; if the treatment is not
free, they will not meet their goals,” said Morten Rostrup,
president of the group’s international council.

Thousands of activists marched and rallied in Nairobi to show
support for people infected with HIV and to demand access to
essential drugs.

“It is depleting our stock of knowledge and reallocating
family and national budgets,” President Mwai Kibaki said.
“Indeed, this disease could lead to the collapse of some
economies in the next few generations. We, therefore, owe it to
humanity to fight this disease relentlessly.”

Health and Human Services Secretary Tommy Thompson appealed in
Zambia for redoubling efforts against HIV. Africa, the hardest-hit
continent, cannot fight the pandemic alone, he said.

“This war has caused more casualties than any other
war,” Thompson said. “We need America, the European
Union and everybody. Nobody is going to be spared unless we all
come together in the fight against this disease.”

Former South African President Nelson Mandela urged the world to
fight the stigma associated with HIV, saying it was stopping people
from being tested and treated.

“That is a tragic mistake, because when you do that, you
make the people that are suffering feel like they are not human
beings,” Mandela said in Cape Town, South Africa. “Many
will die because of feeling less than human.”

UNAIDS estimates 3 million people have died this year. WHO says
more than 5 million HIV patients need anti-retroviral drugs, but
fewer than 400,000 have access to them.

Anti-retroviral drugs allow HIV patients to live a relatively
normal life by preventing the development of full-blown AIDS. The
drugs improve their health, but they remain infected and can
transmit the disease.

India announced plans to spend $44 million to provide free
anti-retroviral drugs to 100,000 AIDS patients, a
“significant scale-up” in the fight against the disease
in a country that has the world’s second- largest number of
HIV-infected people. Until now, India has focused on prevention,
but starting April 1, 2004, it will offer free drugs at government
hospitals.

Health workers hit Beijing’s streets to teach prevention
in a country whose leaders have promised to fight the disease
aggressively. The China Daily newspaper, citing a survey by the
Health Ministry, WHO and UNAIDS, said 840,000 Chinese were
HIV-positive and 80,000 had developed AIDS.

But Siri Tellier, head of the U.N. Theme Group on HIV/AIDS in
China, said it was not known whether that figure was accurate. She
said there has been no widespread blood testing in the country, and
she urged Beijing to improve its monitoring.

The British government said it will double its funding to UNAIDS
next year to $10.2 million.

“HIV/AIDS destroys families and threatens to break down
the fabric of whole societies, but I believe the challenges ahead
can be met,” said International Development Secretary Hilary
Benn.

Botswana President Festus Mogae said people must take
responsibility for utilizing the free anti-retroviral therapy, HIV
testing and the prevention of mother-to-child transmission services
that are available.

“Unless we take it upon ourselves to use condoms and
prevent HIV infection, we have only ourselves to blame for our
plight,” Mogae said.

Malawi’s government pledged to provide free AIDS medicine
to 50,000 people by 2005, paid for by the Geneva-based Global Fund
to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, Vice President Justin
Malewezi said.