sia
risks to become theatre to a devastating aids epidemic which, over the years,
could ‘compete’ with the horrific situation of the African continent. To
launch the alarm was the UN, which have released the figure of the terrible
epidemic. According to the last reports, at the end of 2001, nearly 6,6 million
people in Asia have been living with HIV-AIDS, including a million between
adults and children that contracted the virus that same year. “One million of
new infected cases means 3.000 a day and 120 every hour…These are shocking
figures”, commented Sandro Calvani, president of the UN HIV-Aids program in
Southeast Asia and in the Pacific. “If it is true – he continued – that in
China it regards 1% of the population, we must not forget that this percentage
corresponds to at least 12 million Chinese”.
One million of new infected cases means 3.000 a day and 120 every hour…These are shocking figures
Another Asiatic country where the virus is spreading rapidly is India, with at least 3,97 million esteemed cases of HIV-Aids. Instead Calvani underlined the progress carried out by Cambodia in the prevention and fight against Aids. Here, for example, the percentage of HIV cases amongst the pregnant woman that live in urban areas has decreased from 3,2% of 1996 to 2,7% in the year 2000, thanks to a multiplicity of measures adopted in the health and administrative sector. AIDS will kill 68 million people in the 45 most affected countries between 2000 and 2020, over five times more than the 13 million it struck down during the previous two decades.
In addition, HIV has moved into areas where it previously seemed stable or was confined to high-risk groups, especially in China, Indonesia, the Russian Federation and Eastern Europe and Western and Central Africa, says the UN report. As the epidemic mounts, drugs to treat it remain scarce in the developing world. Of six million people in developing countries needing antiretroviral drug therapy, less than 4 per cent were receiving it by the end of 2001. Donor funding to fight the epidemic has risen by six times since 1998, but still falls short of the immense need. By UNAIDS estimates, commitments from governments, international organizations and the private sector will provide about $3 billion in 2002, but low and middle-income countries will need $10 billion per year to combat the epidemic by 2005.
(From MISNA)