In Hanoi yesterday, international experts said HIV/AIDS could severely erode Vietnam's economic development and its fight against poverty unless the government changes it approach to the epidemic. "HIV has the potential of reversing all the development gains over the past 15 years since Vietnam began its economic reforms," said Jordan Ryan, the UN Development Program's representative to Vietnam.

Ryan made his remarks at the opening of a World Health Organization conference aimed at encouraging China, Indonesia, Myanmar and Vietnam to address the HIV/AIDS crisis among injection drug users. "IDUs play a critical role in the dynamics of the epidemic," said Andrew Ball, a WHO expert on HIV/AIDS. "If we don't address it, it will be very difficult to control the epidemic in these four countries and elsewhere in the region."

"There needs to be a separation of HIV/AIDS from social evils. HIV/AIDS is not an evil, it is a virus," Ryan said. "Social evils" is the term used by the Vietnamese government to refer to drug addicts and prostitutes. Health experts have long criticized the government for focusing on AIDS as an affliction of these two groups, rather than raising awareness about the epidemic among the wider population.

"Harm reduction programs should be introduced if we want the epidemic not to spread quickly," said Pascale Brudon, the WHO's representative to Vietnam. "We have more and more good evidence coming from the rest of the world that things need to change here."

That transformation is underway, Ryan said. "The mindset of the government is beginning to change. Awareness is coming home to roost, but now the focus has to be on implementation."

While Vietnam acknowledges 54,640 HIV cases, the real number is at least 200,000, experts say.

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