AIDS Threatens To Wipe Out 25 Years Of Development

By Dan Wooding
Assist News Service (ANS)

CBN.com – LONDON, UK (ANS) -- “AIDS is out of control and threatening to wipe out twenty-five years of progress in some of the poorest nations' stated Dr. Patrick Dixon, founder of the international AIDS charity ACET this week.

He was speaking shortly before World AIDS Day which takes place on Friday, December 1 and has the theme of “Stop AIDS; Keep The Promise.”

Dr. Dixon went on to say: “AIDS is destroying a generation of young people on which the future of these countries depends. In worst-hit towns and cities a family or office worker can expect to attend an AIDS funeral at least once a month. Every few seconds another young person becomes infected with HIV without realizing it. Tens of millions of children face an uncertain future because their parents have died. Yet AIDS is 100% preventable and it costs very little to save a life.”

He went on to say, “We have seen in Uganda that AIDS can be beaten - with dramatic falls in infection rates from 22% to 7% over the last decade. But even Uganda is now seeing another rise - as a new generation of young people start taking risks. Meanwhile we are seeing rapid spread of HIV in India, Russia, Ukraine and China. We need a global response to AIDS on a scale never seen before.”

According to a news release from ACET, Patrick Dixon is calling on the UK church to support the work of AIDS prevention before it is too late.

“In many of the poorest nations Churches are leading the fight against AIDS, with tens of thousands of volunteers from their congregations, but they urgently need our support. It is easy to be complacent in the UK where only 65,000 have been infected so far with HIV, and those that carry the virus have access to antiviral treatment.

“After 20 years of losing ground to the epidemic, many of the largest international development agencies are now making AIDS a top priority, in partnership with governments, activist groups and faith-based organizations - who are now being recognized for the central role they play in mobilizing whole communities in life-saving prevention, care and orphan support.”

ACET has HIV prevention programs in 20 countries including Uganda, South Africa, India, Russia and Ukraine.
More than a million young people have seen an ACET educator in schools
More than 1.4 million educational booklets have been given away in schools
More than 230,000 copies of Dr Patrick Dixon's book “AIDS and You” have been given to project leaders and church workers in developing countries, in 18 languages - copies can be ordered from p.osullivan@acet-international.org.
ACET was founded by Patrick Dixon in 1988 and its name stands for AIDS Care Education and Training.
Every ACET national program is now an independent agency run by nationals from their own country

Note: To contact Dr Dixon, please phone +44 7768 511 390 or by e-mail at: patrickdixon@globalchange.com. The ACET website can be found at: www.acet-international.org.

Related ChurchWatch blog: Rick Warren, Barack Obama and World AIDS Day

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