The First Lady of France, Carla Bruni-Sarkozy, is in the news today, as she is to be named a special ambassador in the global fight on AIDS this World AIDS Day.  Monsters and Critics reports that the model-turned-First Lady-turned-tabloid fodder will be named “a special ambassador for the the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, an international fund-raising organization” later today.

Bruni-Sarkozy is not being appointed to this position just for show.  She has a brother who died of AIDS, but she also states that that’s not the only reason she’s getting involved.

‘Of course, I’m particularly sensitive to this issue because of my brother,’ the 40-year-old former top model told Elle magazine. ‘But I am generally very sensitive to the cause of fighting AIDS. It’s a pandemic. We forget; we are used to it.’

She has stated she will focus most specifically on the transfer of HIV from mother to infant in Africa. AZT, the drug that reduces transmission from mother to child from about 33 percent to about seven percent (I’m, unfortunately, throwing those numbers out there by memory, so they could be off), is very scarce in Africa.  As well, Bruni-Sarkozy states that “The diabolization of the disease is decisive in its spread, because the women do not let themselves be tested, do not let themselves be treated. They are afraid of being ostracized.”

Join Bruni-Sarkozy in fighting AIDS by visiting takepart the World AIDS Campaign website, and remember that this goes beyond just World AIDS Day.