GABORONE, Botswana A dozen women infected with H-I-V are competing in a beauty pageant in Botswana aimed at fighting the stigma surrounding the virus that causes AIDS.

Organizers of the Miss Stigma Free pageant hope the contest - now in its third year - will show the disease does not prevent women from being beautiful and living positively.

The contest is being broadcast on national television.

About 37 percent of Botswana’s one-point-seven million people are infected with H-I-V, which is one of the highest rates in the world.

The diamond-rich country has aggressively fought the pandemic. Botswana launched Africa’s first program to provide life-prolonging anti-retroviral drugs through the public health system in 2002.