Asia-Pacific Region Risks 'AIDS Crisis', UNAIDS Says

The Asia-Pacific region risks an "AIDS crisis similar in scale to Africa's" unless national governments and regional institutions "step up" efforts to fight HIV/AIDS, UNAIDS Deputy Executive Director Kathleen Cravero said on Wednesday in Manila, Philippines, AFP/Channel News Asia reports.

"We believe the economic, political and regional institutions in Asia have a great responsibility now because Asia has a window of opportunity to make sure an AIDS epidemic never takes hold ... as it did in Africa," Cravero said.

The Association of Southeast Asian Nations and the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum "need to get the action much accelerated" by providing resources to individual countries, Cravero said, adding that national leaders also need to take a role in combating the spread of HIV/AIDS.

She said that regional leaders "should be promoting strong advocacy, knowledge and awareness" at their annual summits. Although the ASEAN countries have made "good progress" in the last two years, Cravero said that progress "is moving too late and too slow." According to a study by UNAIDS and the Asian Development Bank, more than seven million HIV-positive people live in the Asia-Pacific region, 10 million more people are estimated to contract the disease by 2010 and more than 500,000 people die of AIDS-related illnesses in the region annually (AFP/Channel News Asia, 10/20).

Philippines

Cravero and officials from the World Health Organization on Wednesday urged the Philippines to take HIV/AIDS prevalence in the country "more seriously," the Philippine Daily Inquirer reports (Rivera, Philippine Daily Inquirer, 10/20).

Cravero said there is low condom use, a widespread commercial sex work industry, high population mobility, high rates of sexually transmitted diseases and a lack of HIV/AIDS knowledge among the general public in the Philippines, as well as many young people engaging in "risky behavior" and injection drug users sharing needles, AFP/Channel News Asia reports.

Jean Marc Olive, chair of a U.N. group on AIDS, said that the Philippines cannot be protected by a belief that it is different from other countries. He said that condom promotion is "difficult" because President Gloria Arroyo has been hesitant to upset Roman Catholic Church officials, according to AFP/Channel News Asia (AFP/Channel News Asia, 10/20).

Stigma in Vietnam

Cravero on Monday said that the level of stigma and discrimination HIV-positive people in Vietnam face is "as great or greater" than that of any of the more than 50 countries she has visited, the AP/Long Island Newsday reports.

After visiting the Vietnamese cites of Hanoi, Ho Chi Minh City and Haiphong, Cravero lauded the government's national strategy for fighting the spread of HIV/AIDS but said that if the country does not "reverse the way people think about the disease, it could block attempts to help those infected with the virus," according to the AP/Newsday.