wfn.org | Adventists Participate in World AIDS Day Event

[BeckettJ@gc.adventist.org]

ANN Bulletin
Adventist News Network
Seventh-day Adventist Church World Headquarters
December 5, 2000
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Adventists Participate in World AIDS Day Event
Washington, D.C., USA ... [ANN]

More than 300 religious, civic, and diplomatic representatives from around
the world gathered in Washington, D.C., on December 1 to acknowledge the
13th  annual World AIDS Day.  Leo Ranzolin, a vice president of the
Seventh-day Adventist Church worldwide, and Dr. Allan Handysides, health
director for the  Adventist Church, attended the summit where leaders
remembered AIDS victims and acknowledged the extent of the work still to be
done in effectively  containing the AIDS epidemic.

"We attended the summit to affirm the Adventist Church's commitment to AIDS
education and to practical care for those dying of HIV/AIDS," says Ranzolin,
who  chairs the church's AIDS study committee.  The recently established
committee has been charged with tracking the impact of HIV/AIDS on society
and the  church, and recommending new, more effective ways for the Adventist
Church to respond to the worldwide epidemic.

"As a church, we want to reflect Christ's love and compassion in dealing
with those who have been impacted by this terrible disease," says Ranzolin.

United States President Bill Clinton addressed the AIDS Summit, saying that
while the AIDS death rate in the United States has dropped, "we must be
humbled  by how very far we all have to go, especially around the world."
Calling the HIV/AIDS epidemic a moral, economic, and international security
crisis, Clinton  unveiled a strategic plan developed by the National
Institutes of Health to increase the level of AIDS research and funding in
more than 50 countries.

The United Nations issued new AIDS statistics last week, estimating that
36.1 million people around the world are currently infected with the AIDS
virus.  Of  those, 5.3 million were infected during 1999. [Bettina Krause]
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