Asia risks an explosion of HIV infection unless governments wake up to the problem, a report released on the eve of the sixth International Congress on Aids in Asia and the Pacific (ICAAP) warns. The report, released on Thursday, warns there is clear potential for an extensive spread of HIV if preventive action is too little or too late. Early and large-scale preventive action has kept prevalence low in parts of Asia but according to status and trends of the HIV/AIDS epidemic in Asia and the Pacific, these low HIV infection rates do not necessarily mean rates will remain low forever.

Some countries in the region began prevention efforts early and they are reaping the benefits today, Peter Piot, executive director of the joint United Nations programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS), said. Elsewhere, however, epidemics will continue their natural course unless prevention programmes quickly reach the population groups most vulnerable to HIV.
HIV related stigma and discrimination remain an immense barrier to effectively fighting the most devastating epidemic humanity has ever known, Piot added. Although only three Asian countries -- Cambodia, Myanmar and Thailand -- have registered nationwide prevalence rates of over one per cent, the report says these low rates mask an uneven geographic spread.
It says that national figures are meaningless in huge countries like China and India, where some states or provinces have larger populations than most of the world's countries. Bureau Report