Tackling HIV/AIDS threats in the Asia-Pacific region

Tackling HIV/AIDS threats in the Asia-Pacific region

Alexander Downer, Canberra

The 7th International Congress on AIDS in Asia and the Pacific
which was held this week in Kobe, Japan, presented leaders of
this region with an opportunity to refine and sharpen their
responses to the battle against HIV. Already 8.2 million people
with the virus live in the Asia Pacific region. Unless the rate
of infection is turned around, it is estimated that in five years
40 percent of the world's new infections will be in this region.

For two decades Australia has been a world leader in the
domestic fight against AIDS and now we are at the forefront of
international efforts to reduce the spread of the disease in Asia
Pacific. We have committed A$600 million until 2010 to counter
HIV. I was pleased to announce last week that we will contribute
an additional $5 million to the Global Fund to Fight AIDS,
Tuberculosis and Malaria (GFATM). This follows the $15 million
announced earlier this month.

However money alone will not stop the epidemic. Strong
leadership is also essential. This point was reinforced during
the Congress by Australia's Special Representative on HIV/AIDS,
Annmaree O'Keeffe, when she reminded participants that leadership
is more than just the province of politicians, it must also come
from community, business and religious leaders working together
to win the fight against HIV/AIDS.

O'Keeffe was accompanied to the Congress by a team of
Australian development specialists from the Australian Agency for
International Development, AusAID, who met with delegations from
the Asia Pacific Leadership Forum on HIV/AIDS, UNAIDS, the Asian
Development Bank, UNICEF, and high-level representatives from
China and Papua New Guinea.

Harnessing the strengths of all interested parties will be
critical in building a shared agenda for important prevention and
treatment initiatives.

HIV/AIDS is as much a long-term development issue as a medical
one. The virus has a firm grip in many developing countries and
the relationship between HIV and poverty is stark. Poverty
increases people's vulnerabilities to HIV, posing increased risks
of infection, especially for women and girls.

It is estimated that over 60 percent of all global infections
in 15-24 year olds are now young women. This is generally the
result of women's lower social and economic status and lack of
negotiating power.

Poverty is also a consequence of HIV. The AIDS epidemic
strikes vehemently at those in the most productive years of life
between 15 and 49 years of age. It does not discriminate between
professions. When people become sick they are forced to leave the
workforce.

Their incomes decline and families become strained by caring
for orphans and the sick. We do not need a crystal ball to see
how devastating the future consequences of HIV/AIDS may be -- we
can see it today in Africa. By 2025, no-one under the age of 50
in Africa will remember a world without AIDS.

Closer to home, the spread of the disease in the Pacific is
extremely worrying, especially in Papua New Guinea where it is
estimated that more than 50,000 people are infected. In the
region, only Cambodia has a higher prevalence rate. If present
trends in Papua New Guinea continue, the country's labor force
could be reduced by as much as 38 percent by 2020 and the budget
deficit will increase by between 9 and 21 percent by 2020.

Australia is not prepared to passively watch the virus spread
through neighboring countries and has been working with the Papua
New Guinea National AIDS Council on strategies to educate and
alert people, especially the most vulnerable, to the virus.

The global HIV/AIDS picture remains bleak. It is highly
unlikely that an effective vaccine for HIV or cure for AIDS will
become available in the next decade. However the good news is
that people can be protected against the disease.

Although not a cure, antiretroviral treatments can prolong
life for those living with the virus, and well targeted
prevention education can be highly effective in reducing the
spread of HIV, as we have seen in Australia. Communities can
also be supported and supportive once stigma is reduced. The
challenge is to ensure access to prevention, care and treatment
services for the poorest in our region.

Prevention works best when it is accompanied by strong
leadership. HIV transmission arises from intimate personal
behaviors that are shaped by social norms and values. Challenging
taboos regarding sex and community norms on issues such as the
acceptability of sexual violence against women lie at the core of
prevention.

With leadership on these issues and investment in prevention
programs that target groups such as injecting drug users and
highly mobile populations, the virus has less opportunity to
spread. The tide can be turned. Australia will do its very best
to help make this happen.

The writer is Australian Minister for Foreign Affairs.