We are glad to see the coverage World AIDS Day has received.

It has been very organized in China. The main ceremonies were in Beijing, but there was also a large one here in Shanghai, on the main downtown shopping thoroughfare of Nanjing Road. Nanjing Road is six miles of stores, the last mile of which leads almost to the Bund and is a pedestrian mall paved with marble, lit up at night, vehicle free and very popular. It was along this mile that the ceremony was held--we watched the set-up, and saw hundreds of older teens in white medical-type coats with little red ribbons on their lapels wearing red hats or white visors saying World Aids Day as they were preparing for the event. There were registration tables set up all around to dispense information, and a stage had been erected, the size used for a rock concert, with huge speakers and tons of red lanterns. Hundreds of black folding chairs were set out.

As we mentioned, the main ceremony was in Beijing, at the Great Hall of the People. For the first time ever in China, which has been in denial about its HIV and AIDS problem, an HIV carrier spoke before a crowd of top health officials, experts and students. His message was "We want to love and be loved."

The theme of the international campaign this year, which is to promote awareness, to educate the populace about AIDS and prevention, and to reduce the stigma associated with it, thereby encouraging those affected to seek treatment, is "Live and Let Live." The campaign will last a month.

There are now over one million AIDS/HIV patients in China. The number is expected to increase to 10 million by 2010. The primary cause of AIDS in China is dirty needles.

Former President Bill Clinton has an op-ed in today's New York Times: AIDS Is Not a Death Sentence.

"Historians will look back on our time and see that our civilization spends many millions of dollars educating people about the scourge of H.I.V. and AIDS, which has already taken 25 million lives and could infect 100 million people over the next eight years. But what they will find not so civilized is our failure to treat 95 percent of people with the disease."

"Given that medicine can turn AIDS from a death sentence into a chronic illness and reduce mother-to-child transmission, our withholding of treatment will appear to future historians as medieval, like bloodletting."