Those of you who are young today can actually stop the HIV/AIDS epidemic. Forty million people are infected with HIV/AIDS, which makes it the most serious health-related catastrophe of modern times.
Of course, large sums of money and access to medicines are needed, and this is a responsibility for others.
But you can do something just as important to make a difference: You can create more openness about HIV/AIDS. Shame and stigmatisation kill too ? for instance when people are too afraid to find out whether they have the virus and then unknowingly infect others. (…)
— HRH Mette-Marit of Norway, UNAIDS Special Representative on World AIDS Day, 1 December 2006