Asia Leaders Ignore Looming AIDS Crisis -- UN Envoy

An impending "African-style" AIDS crisis that threatens Asia's economic and social development is being ignored by regional leaders, a UN special envoy said today in Bangkok.

"Some leaders have buried themselves in the illusion that HIV/AIDS is not really an Asian problem -- that the infection will somehow restrict itself to the high-risk groups," Nafis Sadik, special UN envoy for HIV/AIDS in Asia, told a UN conference on health and poverty. "This is a denial of reality," Sadik told the meeting, which was attended by ministers and officials from 47 Asia-Pacific countries. Sadik did not identify which Asian leaders she thought were not facing up to the AIDS threat.

Although infection rates are far lower than in southern Africa, experts say the Asia-Pacific region could account for 40 percent of new global infections by 2010 if prevention efforts are not stepped up.

The World Health Organization reports that adult HIV prevalence rates in Asia are still relatively low, exceeding 1 percent only in Cambodia, Thailand and Myanmar. But the region added 1 million new cases last year.

Among Asia's most populous countries, about 1 million Chinese are living with HIV and that number could jump to 10 million cases by 2010. India could have up to 25 million HIV patients by 2010, up from nearly 4 million cases today. HIV has appeared in 26 of Indonesia's 30 provinces, said Sadik.

"Neglect in a region where 60 percent of the world's population live will have global consequences. A major AIDS epidemic is waiting to happen. I urge you to make sure that it does not," Sadik said.

After a successful campaign to promote condoms in the commercial sex trade, Thailand is one of the region's rare success stories. But experts fear the Thai government's commitment to HIV prevention is weakening. "I think the message that leaders should act applies to our country too," said Dr. Prapan Phanuphak, of the Thai Red Cross AIDS Research Center.

Back to other news for September 2, 2003