In Thailand at the recent regional UN conference on AIDS, the director of UNAIDS for Asia and the Pacific called on governments to institute legal reforms to help stop the spread of HIV, particularly among injecting drug users. "The time has come to take a fresh look and see the drug user is not treated as an offender but as a patient, as somebody who should be given treatment," said Prasada Rao.

The anti-drug laws of some Asian nations are among the world's toughest, meting out life sentences and even capital punishment for drug users and traffickers. In China, meanwhile, UNAIDS says nearly half the people living with HIV are believed to have been infected through contaminated needles.

The UN points out that harm-reduction measures, such as needle-exchange programs and methadone substitution, are helping cut HIV transmissions is some countries in the region. The programs have been successful in Australia and have been adopted in Taiwan, Bangladesh and Vietnam. During the past two years, new HIV infections rates in Taiwan have come down by 70 percent.

"It is high time that harm reduction has been brought to the forefront as an important tool, as an important strategy in the prevention of HIV," said Rao. "But what is not happening at the country level is the connection between the law enforcement authorities and the ministry of interior with the health ministry."

Some 5 million people in Asia are living with HIV; the region's highest rates of infection are found in Southeast Asia.

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