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UNITED NATIONS: Asian governments must devote more funds to
preventing AIDS or face the risk that the disease could kill nearly
500,000 people each year across the continent by 2020, a United
Nations (UN) report says.
While the international spotlight has often
focused on AIDS in Africa, the study commissioned by the UN Program
on HIV/AIDS sounded the alarm about the impact of the scourge in
Asia. About 440,000 currently die from the disease each year in
Asia, the report said.
The study released Wednesday also said the
overall number of infected people would likely double to 10 million
by 2020 if prevention efforts are not implemented.
“Despite a declining trend of new HIV [the
virus that causes AIDS] infections in a few countries, AIDS still
accounts for more deaths annually among 15- to 44-year-olds than do
tuberculosis and other diseases,” it noted.
“The costs of inaction are simply too high,”
said the chairman of the Commission on AIDS in Asia, Dr.
Chakravarthi Rangarajan as he presented the report to UN
Secretary-General Ban Ki Moon. “Without concerted and
evidence-based responses, Asia can expect an economic [annual] loss
of $2 billion by 2020.”
Ban appealed to Asian countries to implement the
Rangarajan-led panel’s recommendations, including increased
funding for prevention efforts.
“Asian countries can avert massive increases
in infections and death, prevent economic losses, and save millions
of people from poverty,” he noted. “Such leadership is critical
in Asia today.”
“We will never see equitable progress if some
parts of the population are still denied basic health and human
rights—people living with HIV, sex workers, men who have sex with
men, and young people who inject drugs,” the UN chief added.
“Today, less than 20 percent of the resources
required to tackle AIDS [in Asia] are available,” said UNAIDS
Executive Director Peter Piot.
Indeed, Rangarajan’s report noted that last
year, an estimated $1.2 billion was available for AIDS programs in
Asia, while the amount needed “for an effective response” was
estimated at $6.4 billion.
The study said “a minimum of 0.30 percent per
capita must be spent annually on prevention for it to be
effective.”
It noted that an annual budget of $1 billion for
focused prevention programs among most-at-risk populations could
reduce infections by 60 percent in Asia.
The 238-page report noted that HIV transmission
in Asia was driven primarily by three high-risk behaviors:
unprotected commercial sex, injecting drug use and unprotected sex
between men.
Across Asia, an estimated 4.9 million people
were living with HIV, including 440,000 newly infected in the past
year, while about 300,000 died from AIDS-related illnesses in 2007,
according to UNAIDS’s annual report issued in late 2007.
It showed Southeast Asia had the highest
prevalence of HIV in the continent, with Indonesia having the
fastest rate of growth of HIV-infected people.
-- AFP
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