WORLD’S AIDS DAY

Belgrade, 1. December 2003 – TRH Crown Prince Alexander II and Crown Princess Katherine attended a formal reception at the Aero Club tonight, on the occasion of the World’s AIDS Day.

Beside Their Royal Highnesses, the reception was also attended by the representatives of the diplomatic corps, and the Minister of Social Affairs Dr. Gordana Matkovic.

According to the latest information by the UN AIDS Agency, the situation with HIV epidemic is not encouraging at all. By the end of 2002, a total of 42 million people with HIV and AIDS were registered on our planet, out of which there are 3.2 million children. Only 22 years after it was discovered this dangerous disease, “the plague of our times” for which the adequate cure has not been found yet, takes 8,000 lives a day on average and in facts 14,000 new people – every 14 seconds on average one person gets infected and every 5 minutes someone dies of AIDS.

In our country, based on the information provided by the Institute for the protection of Health “Batut”, 65 people infected by HIV were registered in Serbia (without Kosovo and Metohija) in 2003, as well as 43 newly infected persons. Since the first case of HIV infection in 1985, 1,702 people having HIV were registered by the end of 2002, out of which 1,126 had AIDS and 830 died.