World AIDS Day observed in Greece

World AIDS Day, observed on December 1 each year, was marked throughout Greece with public awareness campaigns on Tuesday and Wednesday.

Informational material and condoms were given out by NGO volunteers and actors at several spots throughout Athens, who also shared out “FreeHugs” to passers-by in a move aimed to eliminate social racism against HIV carriers and to stress the fact that HIV is not communicated through social contact.

According to statistics released by the National Center for Disease Control and Prevention (KEELPNO), AIDS incidents have been on the rise in Greece in recent years, with 519 new cases reported this year up until October 31, bringing the overall number of HIV positive cases to 10,452 of which 80.9 percent (8,453) were men and 18.7 percent (1,951) were women, while no gender was reported in a small percentage of the cases.

The number of children infected with AIDS remains small, however, with just 37 cases overall, of which 64.9 percent were infected by the mother.

AIDS-related deaths this year, up to October 31, totaled 34.