The International Memorial Day of People Who Died from AIDS is marked on Sunday, May 19. On this occasion, the Health Ministry will join the International AIDS Candlelight Memorial. AIDS Center director Stefan Gheorghita has told IPN that there will be staged a number of activities to commemorate and prevent HIV/AIDS at national level.

“There will be organized meetings and news conferences centering on the prevention of the virus. Candles will be lit in the form of a solidarity ribbon and there will be held commemoration services,” said Stefan Gheorghita. A motor caravan will start on Sunday. It will involve members of the Association “Positive Initiative”, which deals with the prevention of HIV. The caravan will include a column of 13 vehicles equipped with thematic symbols and flags. They will go along the Chisinau – Comrat – Cahul – Bender – Tiraspol – Rybnitsa – Balti – Chisinau route and will stop in every town with a two-day program. The participants will offer the people to take the fastest test for AIDS – the saliva test.

“HIV/AIDS is a problem that must make us think. A lot of people get infected and die annually. This happens because they do not seek help in time,” “Positive Initiative” executive director Alexandru Curashov has told IPN. He added that on May 30, when the caravan comes to an end, the participants will inaugurate an architectural monument in memory of persons who died from AIDS in the public garden “Stephen the Great”. It represents a desk made from metal nuts, with 1,756 screws, which is the number of persons who died from AIDS in Moldova. According to the Health Ministry’s data, in Moldova there are 8,061 persons with HIV/AIDS, most of them being from Balti, Tiraspol, Bender, and Chisinau.

The International Memorial Day of People Who Died from AIDS was marked for the first time in San-Francisco in 1983. In Moldova, this day has been celebrated officially since 2002.