Members of Israel’s AIDS Task Force visited the Knesset on Monday, as part of observances of International AIDS Mobilization Day.
They distributed red ribbons — which symbolize solidarity with victims of the disease — to parliament members and held a meeting with a Knesset committee on AIDS to discuss the problems of those afflicted with HIV, the virus that causes AIDS.
Task force members said they would push for legislation ensuring equal rights and treatment for AIDS and HIV sufferers.
“All over the world, people are not dying so quickly of AIDS. They are living eight, nine, 10 years,” Shosh Newman, one of the leaders of the task force, told Israel Television. “During this time, they want the rights of the rest of society, and it should not be any other way.”
Since 1981, 327 cases of AIDS were contracted in Israel. Of those, 245 people died of the fatal disease. Sixteen of them left the country.
Some 1,300 people have tested positive for HIV in Israel.
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