AIDS in Asia and the Pacific - amFAR Report

March 14, 2008. Asia is confronting a complex and devastating HIV/AIDS epidemic. Although HIV did not hit Asian countries until the late 1980s, by the late 1990s the epidemic was well established across the region. UNAIDS reports that in 2007, approximately 440,000 Asians/Pacific Islanders were newly infected with HIV, bringing the total number living with HIV/AIDS in Asia and the Pacific to 4.9 million. In the same year, 330,000 people died from AIDS-related illnesses in this region. The prevalence of HIV in some Asian countries remains relatively low, but with a regional population that is roughly 60 percent of the world’s total, even low prevalence translates into huge numbers infected: In Thailand, where the AIDS epidemic started earliest and prevention efforts have achieved some success, HIV prevalence is 1.5 percent. By the end of 2007, an estimated half a million Thais were living with HIV/AIDS, with four in 10 new infections occurring among women, many infected by their husbands. Prevalence among injection drug users remains high, ranging between 30 and 50 percent (World Health Organization, 2007). In India, a recent national household survey and a tenfold increase in the number of sites participating in HIV surveillance have provided more accurate data and allowed a reduction in estimates from 5.7 million to 2.5 million HIV infections. Adult HIV prevalence in India is estimated at 0.36 percent, with less than 15 percent of HIV-positive people who need antiretroviral therapy receiving it. HIV prevalence in southern Indian states is almost five times higher than in the north, accounting for nearly 75 percent of India’s HIV infections.

View full text ››    Print     Email     Comment     Add content

Contributor: Anuradha Bhattacharjee
Published Date: May 8, 2008