ASEAN societies to use condoms to combat AIDS

ASEAN societies to use condoms to combat AIDS

SINGAPORE (Reuter): ASEAN countries said yesterday their
conservative societies would increasingly use condoms to fight
the spread of AIDS, which experts predict will infect two million
people in the region by 2000.

"Condom use is still unacceptable to many people in the
region, but it is expected as time goes by that the number of
people who do not accept the use of condoms for prevention of
infection will no longer be significant," the report of the
outgoing chairman of the ASEAN task force on AIDS said.

The report was delivered on the final day of a three-day
meeting on AIDS by the Association of Southeast Asian Nations
(ASEAN) comprising Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines,
Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam.

Government medical workers expressed alarm during the
conference at the rapid spread of acquired immune deficiency
syndrome in the region.

By 2000 over one million Thais, 750,000 Indonesians, 300,000
Vietnamese, 90,000 Filipinos and over 20,000 Malaysians will
probably be infected with the HIV virus which causes AIDS, the
medical officials said.

The use of condoms remains a sensitive issue in religious
societies such as Moslem Indonesia, Malaysia and Brunei and the
predominantly Roman Catholic Philippines.

The Catholic Church in the Philippines has waged a bitter
battle with the government over its promotion of contraceptives
as a tool to control the country's rapidly growing population.

"They believed that the use of effective contraceptives for
prevention of pregnancy would give many people a feeling of
safety to practice premarital and extramarital sex," said the
report, prepared by the Indonesian delegation.

ASEAN countries have agreed to set up a regional information
and research center to combat AIDS and said Thailand's efforts to
trim the infection rate among its people could serve as a model
for the rest of the region.

"Everyone looks at what happened in Thailand. They have a lot
to share with us," an official who attended the conference said.

One Thai official said it had cut its annual infection number
to 50,000 currently from 100,000 a few years ago. Thailand has,
among other things, aggressively promoted the use of condoms.

"The regional programs have to be accelerated," the report by
the Indonesian delegation said.

The list of projects include studies on population movements
and their impact on the spread of the disease and links with non-
government organizations to instruct young people against casual
sex and other forms of risky behavior.

"A lot of countries said they had to strengthen their
surveillance systems," a conference official added. "We know that
the AIDS pandemic is moving towards Asia."

Another effort will be made by ASEAN countries in promoting
family values by encouraging people to refrain from casual sex
and change high-risk behavior which may cause the individual to
be infected, a conference official said.

The conference warned that AIDS may have an adverse impact on
the region's flourishing economies.

"If the present speed of HIV transmission continues, the
region will suffer severely from the nullifying effects of
HIV/AIDS with its serious implications in all development
sectors," the Indonesian report said.