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Asia-Pacific face a 'silent tsunami' - AIDS
KOBE, Japan - The Asia-Pacific faces a "silent tsunami" as HIV/ AIDS rates
surge in a region home to more than half the world's population, a U.N. official
said Saturday.
Rao said Asia is at a crossroads and must act now or face an explosion of new cases that will quickly move beyond groups usually considered vulnerable, such as sex workers and injecting drug users, and into the general population. In the mid-1980s, while the United States and Europe grappled with raging epidemics, the percentage of people infected in Asia was undetectable. In the 1990s, Thailand and Cambodia were Asia's only two countries experiencing major problems. But by 2004, the numbers in some Asian countries rivaled those in sub-Saharan Africa. Rao stressed that it's not too late, and that strong national leadership and more funding can turn the epidemic around. However, he said, "If national responses remain as they are today, we're all in deep trouble." "We know what to do," he said. "We are just not doing enough of it." He said prevention programs must be expanded to target groups with spiking infection rates. Out of 16 Asian countries, a study found that only 1 percent of men who have sex with men had been reached with HIV/AIDS messages — and only 5 percent of injecting drug users. Funding must also be increased to US$5 billion (euro4.14 billion) over the next two years to make a dent in the epidemic, and affordable treatment must be made available to more people, he said. In India — which has the world's second-highest number of HIV infections after South Africa — only about 5 percent of the 5 million now infected receive treatment. But in neighboring Sri Lanka, free AIDS drugs are provided to all those infected with the virus, said the country's health minister, Nimal Siripala de Silva. De Silva said other countries' leaders, including those attending the Group of Eight summit in Scotland next week, should help all of Asia reach that goal. He also aimed a barbed comment at U.S. President George W. Bush. " President Bush, in search of weapons of mass destruction, engaged in a war with Iraq, but unfortunately could not find any," he said. "In our own societies ... the worst weapon of mass destruction — the spread of the HIV virus — is clearly visible." An estimated 8.2 million people had the virus in the Asia-Pacific region last
year. About 1.2 million were newly infected in 2004, second only to sub-Saharan
Africa.
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