12-year-old with HIV to open world AIDS conference

By ALEXANDRA OLSON , Associated Press Writer, Medicine & Health / HIV & AIDS

Keren Dunaway-Gonzalez, 12, shows a copy of the magazine she edits on HIV during an interview with the Associated Press in Mexico City, Friday, Aug. 1, 2008. The 12-year-old girl, HIV positive, who has become a prominent AIDS activist in her native Honduras, will share the stage with the Mexican president and the U.N. Secretary-General Sunday, during the opening act of the 17th International AIDS Conference in Mexico City. (AP Photo/Alexandre Meneghini)

(AP) -- Keren Dunaway was 5 when her parents used drawings to explain to her that they both had the HIV virus - and so did she. Now the 12-year-old is one of the most prominent AIDS activists in Latin America and a rarity in a region where few children are willing to break the silence and tell their classmates they have HIV for fear of rejection. She edits a children's magazine on the virus.

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