UN: AIDS Could Cost Asia $17.5 Billion a Year

Failure to boost current HIV/AIDS prevention and treatment in Asia could result in 10 million more infections in the region by 2010, causing the cost of fighting the epidemic to soar to $17.5 billion annually from the current $7 billion, a joint report by the Asian Development Bank (ADB) and UNAIDS said Thursday. "The cost of inaction, of not acting against AIDS, is very high," said UNAIDS Executive Director Peter Piot. "The longer one waits, the higher the bill becomes."

The report, released in advance of the 15th International AIDS Conference in Bangkok, said Asian nations must scale-up their AIDS programs to include, "as a minimum, programs for vulnerable groups and young people, treatment of sexually transmitted infections, condom promotion, the use of disposable syringes, and the provision of highly active antiretroviral therapy." About 7.2 million people in the Asia-Pacific region are currently infected with HIV.

If the epidemic is not checked now, particularly in India, Thailand, Vietnam, and Cambodia, close to 5.6 million people could become poor or fall deeper into poverty each year from 2003 to 2015, the report warned. "Those who are poor are at greater risk of catching the disease, and those with HIV/AIDS are at a much greater risk of being pushed into poverty," said Geert van der Linden, vice president of ADB.

ADB donors recently approved approximately $140 million in grants to support regional HIV/AIDS and health programs, but governments must do more, said van der Linden. Only Thailand and China have allocated more than 20 percent of the resources necessary to contain their epidemics, he added.

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