Asia Is New Battleground Against AIDS: UN

The UN's top AIDS official on Tuesday warned that Asia must wake up to the battle against the disease if it wants to avoid the fate of Africa. "At the moment in Asia, the perception is that it is particularly a problem for Africa, but Asia is very vulnerable," said Peter Piot, the director of the Joint UN Program on HIV/AIDS. "The most affected countries are Thailand, Myanmar and Cambodia." According to Piot, the HIV/AIDS epidemic had reached alarming proportions in other countries in the region, including India. "In India, we are close to five million infected people."

Piot warned against complacency in the fight against HIV/AIDS. "Actions taken today will determine the global shape of the epidemic in a decade," he said in a lecture at the UN University in Tokyo. Piot was in Japan for talks about progress in setting up a Global Health Fund proposed during a Group of Eight summit. "By the beginning of the next decade, South Africa, which represents 40 percent of Africa's economic output, will be facing an output 17 percent lower than it would be without AIDS," he said. "There is a false sense of security in Asia. But there are also enormous opportunities; if measures are taken and prevention campaigns organized, greater disasters can be prevented," he added.

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