Candlelight memorials to highlight Aids-prevention message

One person was diagnosed with HIV every second day last year in New Zealand.

New Zealand Aids Foundation spokesman Eammon Smythe said the International Aids Candlelight Memorial, being held tomorrow at centres nationwide, was an attempt to make New Zealanders understand that Aids was "very much a domestic issue".

"There is a temptation for Kiwis to think of HIV and Aids as 'someone else's problem, somewhere else'," he said.

But the HIV pandemic was far from abating.

"In 2005 New Zealand experienced the largest ever number of new HIV diagnoses: 183 people learned they had become HIV positive."

There were now an estimated 2700 New Zealanders living with HIV.

In the past few years, the candlelight memorials had focused more on remembering those who had died of Aids, he said.

"Many of those who have died of Aids-related illness in New Zealand were vigorous campaigners for HIV prevention.

"I think we dishonour the memory of those people if we don't use the time when we acknowledge their passing, to also try to prevent others from embarking on the same path."

This year's theme is "Lighting the Path to a Brighter Future".

Speaking to NZPA earlier this week, the clinical director of the Wellington Sexual Health Service, Jane MacDonald, said the rise in HIV infections -- and that of other sexually transmitted diseases -- showed that people were becoming dangerously blase about condom use.

Many people seemed to think that HIV was now "a treatable disease", she said.

"In fact, most people who have HIV will die from an Aids-related illness, and the drugs are not pleasant treatments either.

"Furthermore, there are only a limited number of drugs funded in New Zealand, and the virus does eventually become resistant to them."

The candlelight memorial is a programme of the Global Health Council, and the oldest grassroots Aids awareness campaign in the world.

On the third Sunday of May each year, memorials take place in around 4500 communities in more than 93 countries to support those affected by the HIV/Aids pandemic.

Since the beginning of the pandemic, AIDS has claimed more than 28 million lives, with more than 42 million now living with the virus.

This year's memorials will be held in: Auckland, 6.30pm, St Matthew's in the City; Hamilton, 7pm, Houchen Retreat House, 83 Houchens Rd; Tauranga, 7pm, Memorial Park; Wellington, 6.30pm, St Andrew's On The Terrace, 30 The Terrace; Christchurch, 7pm, The Great Hall, Arts Centre, cnr Worcester Blvd & Rolleston Ave; Dunedin, 7pm, St Pauls; Invercargill, 6pm, Bluff Hill.

- NZPA