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"Focus on AIDS"
The
Star (www.thestar.com.my)
(01/12/05)
AIDS is not getting enough attention in the West and especially in Asia, the
epidemic’s new “frontline”, a top UN official said.
UNAIDS executive director Peter Piot said he was marking World AIDS Day in
Indonesia because he wanted to highlight the risks to a region which is home
to the world’s fastest growing economies.
“On the one hand AIDS has made it to one of the top global issues of our
time,” he said in an interview earlier this week.
“On the other hand, in many countries AIDS is slipping off the agenda. That
is certainly true in the Western world, in Asia now with bird flu coming
out.
“(But) Asia is the new frontline of the AIDS epidemic... In Asia I think the
spread will continue for some time because we don’t simply reach enough
people with prevention messages.”
Speaking in India this month, Piot said the battle against deadly H5N1 bird
flu could divert attention and funds away from global efforts to combat the
spread of HIV/AIDS.
Bird flu has killed 68 people in Asia since late 2003. There are fears it
could mutate into a form that could pass from person to person, sparking a
global pandemic.
Almost five million people were infected by HIV globally in 2005, the
highest jump since the first reported case in 1981 and taking the number
living with the virus to a record 40.3 million, UNAIDS said a week ago.
In Asia, 1.2 million new HIV cases since 2003 pushed total cases to 8.3
million, with conditions in countries such as Vietnam and Pakistan ripe for
a rapid spread.
One in four new HIV infections occurs in Asia, with the disease having
spread to all China’s provinces. India has five million HIV sufferers, the
second-highest after South Africa.
China’s confirmed cases of HIV, the virus that causes AIDS, rose more than
50% in the past year, the country’s top AIDS official has said. The number
of people diagnosed with the HIV virus grew to 135,630 by the end of
September.
More than 3.1 million people have died this year from AIDS around the world
– far more than the toll from all natural disasters since last December’s
Asian tsunami.
One of the messages of World AIDS Day would be the international community
must keep its promises, he added.
“The speeches are getting better and better every day. But the action is not
always there,” he said.
One of the biggest problems in Asia is the stigma of talking publicly about
AIDS, sex and condom use.
Piot said Indonesia, the world’s most populous Muslim nation, had a positive
role to play because at the top of government the disease was taken
seriously.
But this had not trickled down to local levels, he said. Religious leaders
also had to be involved.
“I think in that sense Indonesia could be a stellar example for the Muslim
world,” Piot said.
“There are other countries like Pakistan, Bangladesh, Malaysia, they have
also emerging AIDS epidemics. So what is going on here in Indonesia is going
to be highly relevant to other parts of the world.” – Reuters
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