With more people than ever living with HIV in New Zealand, the annual International AIDS Candlelight Memorial on 21 May will have special significance, according to the New Zealand AIDS Foundation. "There is a temptation for Kiwis to think of HIV and AIDS as ësomeone else's problem, somewhere else," says Eamonn Smythe, National Manager Positive Health for the NZAF. "But with an estimated 2700 people living with HIV in New Zealand this is very much a domestic issue." In 2005 New Zealand experienced the largest ever number of new HIV diagnoses; 183 people learned they had become HIV positive, roughly one every two days! Smythe says the International AIDS Candlelight Memorial has, in the past few years in New Zealand, focussed more on remembering those who hve died of AIDS than on the message of HIV prevention. "Many of those who have died of AIDS-related illness in New Zealand were vigorous campaigners for HIV prevention. I think we dishonour the memory of those people if we don't use the time when we acknowledge their passing, to also try to prevent others from embarking on the same path. Let's honour their work by doing our utmost to ensure that this current rise in HIV is turned around." The International AIDS Candlellight Memorial is a program of the Global Health Council, and the oldest grassroots AIDS awareness campaign in the world. Scheduled on the third Sunday of May each year, communities and individuals worldwide, from large cities to rural villages, gather to light candles in commemoration of those affected by the HIV/AIDS pandemic. The NZAF says it is an opportunity to remember those lost to the disease, to support those currently affected, and to advocate and educate about HIV prevention. Each year, memorials take place in more than 4500 communities in more than 93 countries. In New Zealand memorials are held throughout the country, this year in Invercargill, Dunedin, Christchurch, Wellington, Tauranga, Hamilton and Auckland. In New Zealand Candlelight Memorials were originally run by local communities of HIV-positive people their families and supporters, but over the course of 20 years they have evolved into linked events coordinated by the AIDS Foundation, but still supported by those same groups and individuals. Each year, the international organisers choose a theme. In 2006 that theme is Lighting the Path to a Brighter Future. In New Zealand, the Foundation has taken that theme of remembrance and added themes of awareness and prevention. GayNZ.com; NZAF - 7th May 2006