HIV infection cannot be healed, it can only be treated and effectively prevented, according to David Hrovatin, who heads the project by the Medical Students Association.
Several other students clubs will be involved in the campaign promoting the use of condoms and testing on STDs which will run under the motto "Send the message, not the virus!".
The Clinic for Infectious Diseases of the Ljubljana UKC hospital will offer free counseling and HIV testings from noon to 2 PM.
According to Mario Poljak of the the Institute for Microbiology and Immunology at the Ljubljana Medical Faculty, few people get tested in Slovenia: in 2008 only 1.5% of the population was tested, which is why the institute plans several activities promoting testing in the coming years.
Ahead of this year's World AIDS Day, the Health Ministry has drawn up a strategy for preventing and managing HIV infections in the 2010-2015 period. The plan focuses on prevention of the infection, early diagnosis, prevention of transmission, treatment and minimising the personal and social impact of the infection.
Tomaz Vovko, who treats HIV or AIDS infected people, said there were 310 people infected with HIV in Slovenia at the moment, 240 of which were on therapy, while three HIV-infected patients died this year.
Also, 45 new infections were confirmed this year, of which 37 in men. Like in Europe, most infections are discovered early, while in about a third of the cases the disease has already advanced, Vovko said.
On the eve of World AIDS Day, the Health Ministry held a news conference to present the latest trends, stressing that HIV management in Slovenia was relatively successful, yet the number of HIV cases was still on the rise.
Irena Klavs of the Public Health Institute said that between 1999 and 27 November 2009, 299 new HIV cases had been diagnosed in Slovenia, while 29 people died.
She pointed to the problem of late diagnosis, noting that all the patients diagnosed with AIDS this year were at the same time also diagnosed with HIV. She labelled this a missed opportunity for more successful treatment of HIV and prevention of further transmission.
Ludvik Vidmar of the Ljubljana Clinic for Infectious Diseases noted that HIV treatment in Slovenia, which costs some EUR 120,000 yearly, was good. He noted that only one third of HIV patients died of AIDS, while others died of other causes.
In Slovenia less that one person per 1,000 inhabitants is infected, but the number of newly-registered infections a year is on the rise, having climbed from 6.5 people per million inhabitants in 1999 to 23.5 people in 2008. The most endangered group are male homosexuals.
Worldwide around 60 million people are infected and some 27 million have died of the virus.
