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.