AIDS Activists Swarm Capital Online

In one of numerous events held to commemorate World AIDS Day, the AIDS community launched the first-ever “virtual” march on Washington, enabling citizens all over the globe to participate Monday without having to leave the comfort of their computer screens.

The beginning of the yearlong “E-March” on the nation’s capital featured “speeches” by President Clinton and others, most of them focusing on this year’s theme of youth and HIV, urging young people to take precautions to keep from becoming infected.

“Today, we have good reason to be hopeful,” Clinton told “marchers” at the Web site of the Washington-based AIDS Action Council, which sponsored the event. “Powerful new treatments are helping people with AIDS to live longer and healthier lives. But the epidemic continues. HIV is affecting more and more young people. . . . Only you have the power to keep yourself safe.

“Don’t let HIV keep you from reaching your dreams,” Clinton continued. “You are important to your family, your friends and the rest of us as well.”

On a more somber note, the U.S. Agency for International Development released a study of 23 countries in Africa, Asia and Latin America projecting that a minimum of 41.6 million children will lose one or both parents to the disease by 2010.

“The implications of this in terms of the human and social costs are rather extraordinary,” said Brian Atwood, administrator of the agency.

Last week, the United Nations released a report warning that the epidemic was far worse than previously thought--with more than 30 million adults and children around the world believed to be living with HIV--and said that nearly 600,000 new infections occurred among children worldwide in 1997.

The impact of the disease on children is “absolutely devastating,” Atwood said Monday, adding that he was “sending a message to Americans: You should care about these 40 million children that will be without parents . . . it will have an impact practically on the way our society operates within this very small globe.”

World AIDS Day, an annual event for the last decade, was created as a way to take stock of the epidemic, to teach and remind citizens how to protect themselves from infection, to honor those who have made contributions in combating the spread of AIDS, and to remember all the lives lost to the deadly disease.

The president and First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton, Vice President Al Gore and Tipper Gore, along with numerous administration officials, members of Congress and others, took part in activities across the nation and around the world.

This year, the emphasis was on the epidemic’s impact on children and young people, both directly and indirectly.

The innovative “E-march,” which began Monday but is scheduled to last a year, takes an enduring tool of political protest and brings it into the modern Internet age. Participants can join by accessing AIDS Action’s site (www.aidsaction.org) on the World Wide Web.

The march takes place on a “virtual” Washington Mall--the traditional location of many real marches over the years--complete with a speakers’ podium in front of the Capitol.

Despite the novelty of the event, sponsors stressed the seriousness of the continuing scourge, which, despite progress, “is not over,” said Daniel Zingale, executive director of AIDS Action Council.

“Every hour two Americans under the age of 25 are contracting the virus,” he said. “If we act like the epidemic is over, it never will be.”

There were scores of rallies, concerts and vigils held worldwide:

* In Los Angeles, community groups commemorated the day with candlelight vigils, memorials and poetry readings.

“This is a chance, for once a year, to really increase awareness in the general public about the AIDS epidemic,” said Craig Thompson, chief operating officer of AIDS Project Los Angeles, which hosted a vigil in Hollywood.

Thompson said the event also provides an opportunity for those in the fields of AIDS prevention and education to step back and take stock of the big picture--one that he said has improved. But “we still have a long ways to go,” he said.

And despite advances in treatment, AIDS is growing at alarming rates in minority communities and among women.

“The Latino pride sometimes gets in the way,” said David Bautista, a volunteer with The Wall/Las Memorias, an AIDS outreach organization. He said that because sex and drug use are taboo subjects among many Latinos, the community has often ignored the plight of its AIDS victims. “It is time for us to open our eyes,” he said. “AIDS does not discriminate against any race.”

* At one of many events in Washington, Mrs. Clinton was honored by the Santa Monica-based Pediatric AIDS Foundation at a special presentation featuring actor/director Paul Glaser, actress Mary Steenburgen and Miss America Kate Shindle.

* In London, the National AIDS Trust held a candlelight vigil in memory of those who have died of the disease, with a tribute to the late Princess Diana, who was a patron of the charity.

* In India, believed to have the largest number of HIV-infected people in the world--an estimated 3 million to 5 million--schoolchildren and factory workers marched through the red-light district of Bombay behind a huge black plaster-of-Paris snake, the “AIDS anaconda,” before burning it symbolically in a bonfire. Health and Human Services Secretary Donna Shalala, traveling in Calcutta, visited HIV-prevention programs.

* In Stockholm, musicians held a concert to honor children with AIDS, raising $20,000 for a recreation home for infected children and their families.

* In Jerusalem, some 100 Israelis wearing executioner’s hoods demonstrated against the government’s refusal to fund promising new therapies to help those infected with the virus.

* In Rome, about 1,000 people marched for solidarity with AIDS sufferers, and the Italian clothing company Benetton, joined by the Italian League Against AIDS, launched an ad campaign featuring young people in underwear emblazoned with the red ribbon symbol of AIDS awareness.

* In Beijing, a 14-member group of AIDS activists arrived after spending a week spreading “safe sex” messages along China’s railroads, and were welcomed by the health minister.

* In Cairo, hundreds of Egyptian high school students holding placards warning of the dangers of AIDS ran a marathon along a major thoroughfare, and the health ministry announced it would sponsor a series of conferences this month to publicize the threat of AIDS.

* And in South Africa, the government launched an anti-discrimination campaign in behalf of people with AIDS to protect their jobs and their basic human rights.

Times staff writer Daniel Yi in Los Angeles contributed to this story.