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.