On Thursday, Kosovo public institutions, NGOs and activists organized World AIDS Day activities in the country’s main cities to raise awareness about the disease.

According to Edona Deva, Global Fund HIV Program Manager, in Kosovo the biggest issues are the perception that there’s a low risk of being infected with HIV,  and  the high stigma that accompanies positive patients.

“Dubbed as a ‘virus without passport,’ HIV has come to infect the rich and poor, males and females, children and adults, white and black, without discrimination between races, genders, ages, nationality, education degrees, sexual orientation, and by being faithful to carelessness, ignorance and poverty,” Deva said in a short interview for Prishtina Insight.

According to the UNAIDS data for 2015, over 36.7 million people live with HIV worldwide, thanks to effective antiretroviral therapy. About 2.1 million newly infected people were officially accounted for in 2015, while 10 million people have died the same year from the disease, with children accounting for 10 per cent of the total.