AIDS The True Terrorist On The Planet

International actor and activist Richard Gere lent his voice and star power to the fight against AIDS by hosting a panel discussion session called ‘Media & AIDS’ at the 2006 - XVI International AIDS Conference.

Gere calls the threat of AIDS 'the true terrorist on the planet today,' during a pre-session media conference.

As co-chair of the Heroes Project, a three-year initiative to reduce the stigma of AIDS, Gere is working on a number of special projects in India.

"In India the incident rate is hovering at around one per cent."

"If we can keep that level, there's a good possibility that we're not going to see 10 million or 20 million more Indians die, so that's the reason why we do this work."

The session ‘Media & AIDS’ aimed to highlight the vital role media plays in raising awareness, changing attitudes and fighting stigma.

Gere says he may make a living in the movie industry, but it is his humanitarian causes that keep him centred and grounded.

"I'm not a 26-year-old boy anymore and I look at my life and I have to make some hard decisions of what I can be effective at and be meaningful at with the remaining years that I do have. I distilled that down to several subjects and probably the most important to me was HIV/AIDS."