Fags & Drug Addicts Still Spreading AIDS in Asia

http://www.newsmax.com/archives/articles/2007/3/30/130447.shtml?s=he

HIV Infections on the Rise in Asia
NewsMax.com Wires Friday, March 30, 2007

MANILA, Philippines -- The number of people in Asia infected with the AIDS
virus threatens to double over the next five years unless governments do
more to stop the spread of HIV, officials said Friday.

About 8.6 million people are infected in Asia with HIV.

At the current level of inadequate response, it is expected this number will
rise to about 20 million in the next five years," the independent Commission
on Aids in Asia said.

The nine-member commission, funded by the Joint United Nations Program on
HIV/AIDS or UNAIDS, is holding its two-day Southeast Asia Sub-Regional
workshop in Manila.

It said the number of deaths currently average around 500,000 yearly, and
financial losses to the Asian region are estimated at $10 billion annually.
The economic cost is predicted to rise to as high as $29 billion per year if
the epidemic is not controlled within the next five years.

Despite these projections, investments in HIV control in the region remain
extremely low at 10 percent of the required $5 billion per year, it added.

UNAIDS data show the number of infected people receiving anti-retroviral
therapy has increased more than threefold since 2003, but they represent
only 16 percent of those needing the AIDS treatment.

Only Thailand is providing treatment to at least 50 percent of those in
need, UNAIDS said.

Chakravarthy Rangarajan, chairman of India's economic advisory council and
head of the commission, said that while the prevalence of HIV/AIDS is low in
Southeast Asia, the number of infections are high because the region is
populous.

He also said there was a need to mobilize domestic funds to control HIV/AIDS
in the region, because more than 80 percent of funding currently comes from
foreign aid organizations.

The commission said the reasons for the inadequate response in the region
are manifold, ranging from low levels of awareness and understanding among
policy makers to a difficulty in predicting the dynamics of the disease
progression.

Sex remains taboo, with very little encouragement for sex and family
education for young people. Multi-partner sex and injecting drug use, which
mainly drive the epidemic, are criminal acts, resulting in infected
populations remaining highly stigmatized and deprived of even limited health
care services, it added.


.

Quantcast