'Explosive' AIDS epidemics hit Asian sex workers

'Explosive' AIDS epidemics hit Asian sex workers

Wendy Pugh, Reuters, Melbourne

Prostitutes in China, Indonesia and Vietnam are falling victim
to "explosive" AIDS epidemics which will spread to their
customers' wives and girlfriends, a U.N.-funded report said on
Thursday.

While large-scale preventative action had kept the disease at
bay in parts of Asia, there was "clear potential" for AIDS and
the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) which causes it to spread,
the Monitoring the AIDS Pandemic Network report said.

"After more than a decade of comparatively low HIV infection
levels in most population groups, there is recent evidence of
rapidly growing epidemics in some populations and geographic
areas," the report said.

"A number of countries, for example China, Indonesia and
Vietnam, are now experiencing explosive epidemics in different
population groups."

The report found soaring levels of HIV infection among
intravenous drug users and sex workers in some regions.

"We are kidding ourselves if we think Asia is not at risk for
a major AIDS epidemic, it is already there," UNAIDS executive
director Peter Piot told a media conference.

HIV testing of sex workers in three provinces in China showed
recent rapid rises in infection rates.

In Guangxi province, 9.9 percent of sex workers were found to
have HIV in the second quarter of 2000. The figure rose to 10.7
percent by the fourth quarter of the same year.

"As millions of men frequent sex workers every year, it is
inevitable that HIV infection among these men will rise and that
the fatal virus will eventually get passed on to their wives and
regular girlfriends," the report said.

The AIDS Pandemic Network has more than 100 members in 40
countries and receives funding from the Joint U.N. Programme on
HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) and the U.S. Agency for International
Development (USAID).

"Some countries in the region began prevention efforts early
and they are reaping the benefits today," Piot said.

"Elsewhere, however, epidemics will continue their natural
course unless prevention programmes quickly reach the population
groups most vulnerable to HIV," he said.

The report noted the success of prevention programmes in hard-
hit Thailand and Cambodia in limiting the spread of HIV and said
there was great potential for containment in Asia because most of
the epidemics in the region remained concentrated.

"The good news for Asia is that because the majority of the
population does not engage in high-risk behaviour, focusing on
those who do is both affordable and effective," it said.

The report said only three Asian countries -- Cambodia,
Myanmar and Thailand -- had registered nationwide AIDS prevalence
rates of more than one percent, compared with rates 10 or more
times higher in some African countries.

South Africa has the largest HIV-positive population in the
world, with officials estimating 4.7 million people, or one in
nine, are infected.

The report said Asian national figures hid concentrations in
certain groups and were meaningless in countries like China and
India, where some regions have populations larger than many
countries.

In the Indian states of Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh and Tamil
Nadu -- each with populations of more than 55 million -- more
than three percent of pregnant women and over 10 percent of
people with sexually transmitted diseases have HIV.

"Already today I think about a third or 40 percent of the
world's people with HIV are living in Asia," Piot said.

The "Status and Trends of the HIV/AIDS Epidemic in Asia and
the Pacific" report was released ahead of the Sixth International
Congress on AIDS in Asia and the Pacific, being held in
Melbourne.