KUALA LUMPUR, Oct 24 (AFP) - Asia's economic crisis could worsen the regional AIDS epidemic by forcing more people into prostitution and cutting money available for health care, the UN AIDS chief warned Sunday.

"We are still at the very beginning of the AIDS/HIV epidemic in Asia and the Pacific," Peter Piot, executive director of UNAIDS, told a major conference in Malaysia. "There is no roon for complacency."

Echoing calls Saturday from Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad, Piot said the cost of drugs for treatment must be reduced -- possibly by compulsory licensing of drugs in poor countries.

Another speaker at the 5th International Congress on AIDS in Asia and the Pacific, Australian-based scientist John Mills, cited a case in Melbourne in which one strain of the HIV virus was resistant to all drugs.

"The virus is learning how to avoid anti-retroviral drugs," Mills said, warning that developing such drugs was not a complete answer to the epidemic.

He also said development of a vaccine was "not an absolute certainty."

Mills said politicians, economists and health professionals should work together to combat the disease. "If we rely wholly on science to counter the epidemic, we will fail."

Some speakers estimated that seven million people in the region are HIV-positive, with the vast majority unaware of the fact. Piot said China had more than 400,000 people living with HIV or AIDS and Cambodia nearly 180,000.

Vietnam may have up to 135,000 infections by next year and in two Indian states two percent of the general population was estimated to be HIV-positive.

Piot highlighted success stories like the Philippines, where the number of infections was low and growing very slowly, and Thailand's "well-established prevention efforts". But he added: "Every infection is a human tragedy, affecting the family, loved ones and the community."

Piot said in a statement released at the conference that part of the epidemic in Asia was closely associated with intravenous drug abuse. In many large cities an outbreak among injectors almost certainly preceded, or would precede, a wider epidemic.

"It is arguable that only in the major cities of India and Cambodia did a sexually-transmitted epidemic occur first."

His statement said the spread of HIV in Asia was also associated with migration and prostitution, "where things could get worse because of the economic crisis."

More migrants looking for work could raise cross-border transmission.

"In the sex trade, changes that lower condom use -- a cornerstone of AIDS prevention -- could include an increase in the number of young girls and housewives drawn into 'informal' prostitution, as well as an eventual shift towards a less organised sex trade based in hotels or karaoke bars."

A study in Malaysia had shown that sex workers were offering unprotected sex to attract a dwindling number of clients, his statement said.

Piot said cash shortages could hit care in the family, reduce budgets for prevention programs, force hospitals to ration care and make drugs too expensive.

"The price of drugs must drastically come down for low-income countries," he said in his speech to delegates, calling for multi-tier pricing with pharmaceutical firms recouping their huge investments in rich countries.

"We should also explore whether compulsory licensing can improve access to care," he added.

Mahathir, opening the five-day conference Saturday, said compulsory licensing was allowed under World Trade Organisation rules. But the premier said some powerful countries were aligning with giant drug firms to deny developing countries the right to produce cheaper drugs.

Piot called for the involvement of all different sectors of government in the fight against HIV/AIDS, saying it should be approached both as a threat to economic development and to public health.

Sex education in schools should also be targeted since there was good evidence this promoted safer sexual behaviour.

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