World

Summit Addresses AIDS In Asia

June 13, 2001 / 2:59 PM EDT / AP

Delegates gathering Friday for an international conference on HIV/AIDS in Asia and the Pacific warned governments they could no longer afford to ignore the epidemic, which is gathering pace as it sweeps through the region.

HIV sufferers and activists also called on drug companies to put people before profit in the fight against the disease, which is most prevalent among the world's poorest nations.

Representatives from the political, scientific and community sectors of over 40 countries attended a gala ceremony Friday night to officially open the 6th International Congress on AIDS in Asia and the Pacific (ICAAP), which runs until Oct. 10 in the southern city of Melbourne.

Some 36 million people around the world are living with HIV, the virus that leads to AIDS, according to the United Nations AIDS agency, UNAIDS. In Asia, about 6.4 million people carry the disease, second only to the sub-Saharan Africa region.

Werasit Sittitrai, Associate Director of UNAIDS' Asia, Pacific and Middle East Division, said the congress comes at a time when some countries have become complacent about the virus.

Â"A lot of countries feel that AIDS is not here, and will not be here,Â" Sittitrai said at a press conference before the opening.

Sittitrai said the conference would seek to tackle discrimination against sufferers and to break down barriers to effective prevention, access to care and support.

At the opening ceremony later Friday, Indonesian HIV activist Suzana Murni said not enough people with the sickness were able to access drugs for treatment and a better quality of life.

Â"I believe important drugs like HIV drugs should be available as a choice for patients and not a luxury,Â" said Murni, who is also HIV positive. Â"We must put people's life before profit.Â"

A U.N.-sponsored report released Thursday by the non government organization Monitoring the AIDS Pandemic (MAP) Network, showed that the once relatively low levels of infection of HIV/AIDS in Asia have increased markedly.

While only Thailand, Myanmar and Cambodia showed substantial HIV epidemics in 1999, the virus has now begun spreading rapidly in Indonesia, Iran, Japan, Nepal and Vietnam, the report said. In China — home to a fifth of the world's people — the infection is moving into new groups of the population, the report said.

The congress will examine HIV trends in countries throughout the Asia Pacific region, under the theme Â"Breaking down the Barriers.Â"

Shabana Azmi, an Indian film star and member of India's upper house of parliament, said that government support for HIV/AIDS projects was critical to prevention and treatment.

Â"We have officially 3.5 million HIV positive cases in India, but in spite of that ... there is absolutely no political commitment whatsoever,Â" Azmi said.

Â"Health is on nobody's political agenda ... and we need to accept that we can't push certain issues under the carpet just because it's uncomfortable to talk about,Â" she added.