MYTHS surrounding HIV and AIDS were dispelled at a World AIDS Day event in Ilford on Saturday.

Redbridge youth and community service teamed up with Redbridge HIV team and the Brook Advisory service to provide information and advice.

Shoppers were invited onto a double-decker bus outside Ilford Town Hall where leaflets and red ribbons were handed out and interactive workshops were held to raise awareness among young people about HIV and AIDS.

Maria Cassidy, a health outreach worker with Redbridge youth and community service, was there to tell people the truth about the life-threatening virus and killer disease.

She said: "The response was very positive. People were keen to engage and find out more.

"The event showed there is a lot of misunderstanding about AIDS and confusion about how you can catch HIV."

Visitors to the bus were told that they cannot catch HIV from kissing, hugging, holding hands or using the same toilet as someone with the virus and animals do not pass it on.

It can only be contracted through unprotected sex or sharing infected needles. They were also informed that the virus affects heterosexual people as well as gay men.

Miss Cassidy said: "Some think HIV and AIDS have gone away because they do not hear about it. They made the assumption that it does not affect them, that it happens to someone else. It can impact on everybody."

AIDS (Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome) cases in the UK have reached record levels with 33,000 people affected by the incurable killer disease.

And 47,000 people have been diagnosed with HIV (Human Immunodeficiency Virus) which reduces the body's ability to fight off illnesses and can develop into AIDS. This number is expected to rise by 50 per cent in the next five years and it does not include the thousands of people who do not realise they have the virus.

There has been a sharp downturn in the number of people dying from AIDS since combination therapy was introduced in 1996 to prolong their lives. There were 417 deaths from AIDS in 2000 compared with 1,718 deaths in 1995.

By.Susana Mendonca