AIDS may spread faster in Asia than Africa: UN

AIDS may spread faster in Asia than Africa: UN

BEIJING (Reuters): AIDS may spread faster in Southeast Asia than Africa because of widespread drug use in the region, a U.N. official said yesterday.

"There are many injecting drug-users in Asia who may spread the disease to the general public," said Michel Careal, senior social scientist at the Joint United Nations Program on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS).

"You don't have that in Africa where the epidemic is mainly spread by heterosexuals," Careal said in an interview at an international population conference in Beijing.

The Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV), which can lead to the Acquired Immune Deficiency Virus (AIDS), is most commonly spread through sexual intercourse and the sharing of hypodermic needles.

A high proportion of intravenous drug users in Southeast Asia meant the disease could spread to the general public easily, Careal said.

"We think in some countries of the region there will be huge epidemics," he said.

In Thailand, which has a flourishing sex and drugs trade, the infection rate among the adult population was approaching three percent, compared with 0.6 percent for Southeast Asia and India combined, U.N. figures showed.

In urban areas of eastern and southern Africa, almost three in every 10 people were infected.

"In south and east Africa, the epidemic is still rising at an incredibly high level," Carael said.

"The future is very gloomy in Africa."

Experts from more than 80 countries were attending the 23rd General Population Conference in China, where rapid economic liberalization has been mirrored by a swing in sexual attitudes, especially in the developed coastal cities.

John Anarfi, a demographer at the University of Ghana, lamented the fact that none of the studies presented at the conference on AIDS and demographics came from Asia.

"What was most unfortunate is the complete absence of papers from Asia, which is now regarded as the hottest bed of HIV in the world," he said.

Carael said much of Asia's future depended on how seriously its governments confronted the disease.

"Southeast Asia may escape a major epidemic if action is taken early," he said.

Thailand was a good example of how the epidemic could be contained by widespread use of condoms, education and health services, Carael said.

AIDS began to spread in Africa some 20 years ago, but only hit Asia in the late 80s, Carael said.

"There is this hope that in countries where the epidemic is just starting, such as China, that with a new drug or a new strategy you can catch the epidemic," he said.

There were only 5,990 reported HIV carriers in China, a nation of 1.2 billion people, a U.N. official said, quoting state statistics released at the end of 1996.

"If their problem is not tackled seriously with a huge prevention program, there might be a catastrophe," he said.