HIV/AIDS Infections on the Rise in Asia
Pastor Dale Morgan
HIV/AIDS Infections on the Rise in Asia*
Friday March 30, 2007 1:16 PM
MANILA, Philippines (AP) - The number of people in Asia infected with
the AIDS virus threatens to double over the next five years unless
governments do more to stop the spread of HIV, officials said Friday.
About 8.6 - 10 million people are infected in Asia with HIV/AIDS.
At the current level of inadequate response, it is expected this number
will rise to well over 22 million in the next five years,'' the
independent Commission on Aids in Asia said.
The nine-member commission, funded by the Joint United Nations Program
on HIV/AIDS or UNAIDS, is holding its two-day Southeast Asia
Sub-Regional workshop in Manila.
It said the number of deaths currently average around 500,000 yearly,
and financial losses to the Asian region are estimated at $10 billion
annually. The economic cost is predicted to rise to as high as $29
billion per year if the epidemic is not controlled within the next five
years.
Despite these projections, investments in HIV control in the region
remain extremely low at 10 percent of the required $5 billion per year,
it added.
UNAIDS data show the number of infected people receiving anti-retroviral
therapy has increased more than threefold since 2003, but they represent
only 16 percent of those needing the AIDS treatment.
Only Thailand is providing treatment to at least 50 percent of those in
need, UNAIDS said.
Chakravarthy Rangarajan, chairman of India's economic advisory council
and head of the commission, said that while the prevalence of HIV/AIDS
is low in Southeast Asia, the number of infections are high because the
region is populous.
He also said there was a need to mobilize domestic funds to control
HIV/AIDS in the region, because more than 80 percent of funding
currently comes from foreign aid organizations.
The commission said the reasons for the inadequate response in the
region are manifold, ranging from low levels of awareness and
understanding among policy makers to a difficulty in predicting the
dynamics of the disease progression.
Sex remains taboo, with very little encouragement for sex and family
education for young people. Multi-partner sex and injecting drug use,
which mainly drive the epidemic, are criminal acts, resulting in
infected populations remaining highly stigmatized and deprived of even
limited health care services, it added.