This year the global campaign against AIDS' theme is Women, Girls and HIV/AIDS.
The organizers of the events in Russia designed the red tulip to symbolize hope, life, love and femininity.
According to the Federal Consumer Rights Service, in 2004 the number of HIV positive people topped 290,000 and 10,000 are children.
About 80% of HIV positive people in Russia are young people between the ages of 15 and 29. Chief Sanitary Physician Gennady Onishchenko said the number of HIV positive young women and girls was continually growing.
"In 2003 the number of new HIV cases among girls and women between 15 and 20 surpassed the number of cases among men of this age group for the first time since HIV cases were recorded," Mr. Onishchenko wrote in the letter, "On Events to Be Held during World AIDS Day on December 1, 2004."
The number of diagnosed HIV cases among pregnant women rose considerably and, as a result, the number of children born to HIV infected mothers increased.
The first World AIDS Day was on December 1, 1988. In the past few years, the UN HIV/AIDS program (UNAIDS) has campaigned against discrimination against AIDS patients.
This year as part of the Red Tulips of Hope event, Russians will make thousands of red paper tulips and write their name, age and the city they live in.
Artists will use some of the flowers to make a sculpture to attract the public's attention to the need for immediate measures to combat the HIV/AIDS epidemic.
