AIDS threatens Asia with grave economic crisis

AIDS threatens Asia with grave economic crisis

MANILA (AFP): Asia faces potentially grave economic problems
from the Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS) and must be
willing to challenge religious and cultural norms to mitigate
them, experts said yesterday.

Asian Development Bank (ADB) vice president Peter Sullivan
warned that the ravages of AIDS on the world's most populous and
fastest growing region may wreck the tourism industry and
ultimately lead to productivity falls due to a shortage of
skilled labor that would push up wage costs.

Its effects would go beyond the sick to those who must spend
time and money caring for the victims, he said without giving
figures.

"The potentially grave consequences of a widespread AIDS
epidemic on economic development demand forward-looking,
anticipatory strategies," he told an international AIDS
conference here.

Despite the possibility that there would be more AIDS-infected
people in the Asia-Pacific than in any other region, UNESCO
International Bioethics Committee member Michael Kirby said the
region was dealing with the problem "pretty poorly".

AIDS has so far proved incurable and is often fatal. It is
caused by the Human Immuno-deficiency Virus (HIV) which is
acquired mainly through sexual contact and the sharing of body
fluids and syringes.

"Since the epidemic is often transmitted through sexual
relations, its impact tends to be higher among the sexually
active -- in other words, young adults," Sullivan said.

Chaiyos Kumanusont, of the AIDS division of the Ministry of
Public Health in Thailand, said his government found that three
or four working people were needed to support an AIDS patient.

Indirect costs of AIDS, such as the loss of productivity from
ill workers, is even greater than the direct cost of caring for
AIDS patients, said Myo Thant, a senior economist with the ADB.

Experts said the costs of treatment of AIDS were beyond the
reach of most countries, making prevention the most economical
way of dealing with the problem.

Kirby said the successful examples of Australia, New Zealand
and Thailand in stemming the spread of the disease showed that
"political appreciation of the... economic, developmental and
social costs" of the epidemic was necessary.

This included "a readiness to offend the sensibilities of
those who yearn for the days before AIDS and to challenge
religious and cultural modesties" in order to save lives.

He cited Australia and New Zealand's needle-exchange programs
and Thailand's distribution of free condoms while noting that
other countries still opposed explicit media campaigns on AIDS
prevention.

Sullivan also warned that while individual countries had their
own anti-AIDS programs, "regional or multi-country approaches are
almost non-existent in Asia."

Such programs are needed because of the similarity of the
epidemics in each country, the similar socio-economic conditions
in these countries and greater movement of people across borders,
he said.

Sullivan said regional activities could complement those of
individual countries, citing the ADB's AIDS work program in
countries along the Mekong River.

He called for a greater role for the private sector and non-
government organizations, saying the public sector cannot cope by
itself.

Governments could focus on ensuring that infected people can
get treatment by guarding against discrimination in insurance,
housing, schools or hospitals, as well as make policies like tax
breaks on condoms and information campaigns and training of
health workers.

Non-government organizations could deliver services to the
grassroots sector while the private sector could create the
conditions that allow their workers to get involved, he said.