Asia haunted by spread of HIV/AIDS

Asia haunted by spread of HIV/AIDS

Harmonie Toros, Associated Press, United Nations

Asia's highly populated countries, including China, India and Indonesia, face one of the greatest challenges -- and risks -- in the global battle against HIV/AIDS, according to the United Nations AIDS agency.

With such large populations -- China and India account for one third of the world's people and Indonesia is the world's fourth most populated nation -- even extremely low rates of infection can be devastating, a new UNAIDS report released on Tuesday said.

"These countries have an incredible opportunity to avert major epidemics, also because they have a strong tradition in the mobilization of public opinion, mass campaigns and so on," said UNAIDS head Dr. Peter Piot in an interview with The Associated Press ahead of the annual report's release.

Last week, UNAIDS published a separate report on HIV/AIDS in China, warning that if no effort is made to step up prevention and education, the number of HIV-infected people in China could jump from up to 1.5 million estimated today to 10 million by 2010.

That would put China "on the verge of a catastrophe that could result in unimaginable suffering, economic loss and social devastation," last week's report said.

The Chinese government rejected the report, calling its conclusions and predictions inaccurate.

Piot said that the report had not criticized the Chinese government, where he saw "real commitment," but lamented the lack of action on the provincial level, where much of the funding and decision-making are.

The latest UNAIDS report said China registered a rise of more than 67 percent in reported HIV infections in the first six months of 2001. Many have become infected through unsafe blood- donation procedures.

Piot said that even if only 1 percent of China's population were to become infected that would translate into 13 million people -- more than in any of the most affected countries in Africa.

"It doesn't have to reach enormous infection rates in these countries, before we talk about tens and tens of millions more infected," Piot said.

The latest UNAIDS report said India was home to almost four million infected people -- more than any other country in the world except South Africa.

In Indonesia, negligible HIV prevalence has given way to rapid increases among drug users and prostitutes, with up to 40 percent of patients at a Jakarta drug treatment center infected, the report said.

The report underlined that comprehensive HIV/AIDS programs had shown results.

In Cambodia, HIV prevalence fell from more than 4 percent at the end of 1999 to 2.7 percent at the end of 2001, while in Thailand the number of new infections fell from 143,000 in 1991 to 29,000 in 2001.