BANGKOK, July 11 (AFP) - The largest global conference of AIDS experts, activists and leaders opens here Sunday amid chilling warnings about the growing threat to swathes of the world's population.
Activists and agencies working to combat the disease are expected to use the 15th International AIDS Conference to demand more money to fight the pandemic with new catastrophes threatening the world's most populous continent Asia and Eastern Europe.
UN Secretary General Kofi Annan on Sunday warned that Asia's economic successes were threatened by the spread of HIV/AIDS after experts warned that only a three-year window remained for the region's leaders to head off a crisis that could exceed anything yet seen in sub-Saharan Africa.
The UN has warned that the effects could be disastrous if the virus takes hold in India, China and Indonesia -- the big three countries in the region that represent some 40 percent of humanity.
"Here in Asia, HIV/AIDS stands at a turning point," Annan told delegates to the second Asia-Pacific meeting on HIV/AIDS in Bangkok. "But let us be clear: how you address this challenge will impact the very future of the region.
"In recent decades, more people have escaped from poverty in Asia and the Pacific than in any other part of the world, and more than in any previous time.
"These gains have impressed the whole world. You must cherish, and carefully nurture them. Above all, you must not let them be reversed by HIV/AIDS."
More than 20 million people have died of AIDS since the condition was first detected among a group of US homosexuals in 1981.
Around 38 million people are infected with the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), which wrecks the immune system and leaves the body vulnerable to opportunistic diseases such as tuberculosis, cancer and pneumonia.
Two thirds are in sub-Saharan Africa, a continent steamrollered by stigma, official indifference, ignorance and poor resources, but Asia and Eastern Europe are seen as the new key battlegrounds.
China's Premier Wen Jiabao warned Saturday that AIDS has spread to every level of Chinese society, after the UN said it was worried that the country could see 10 million people infected with HIV within six years.
"These last few years AIDS has spread very quickly over a vast area, causing serious epidemics in some areas," said Wen, who was quoted by the People's Daily on Saturday, the mouthpiece of the ruling Communist Party.
China currently has 840,000 people with HIV, according to the report, only 0.1 percent of the population but the UN fears that the conditions are ripe for numbers to surge.
However, Wen was applauded last year by shaking hands with an AIDS patient in an attempt to break entrenched stigma.
The six-day conference opens later Sunday with a ceremony that will include performing Thai elephants and a candlelight memorial to show solidarity for people with HIV and AIDS.
Before the opening, AIDS campaigners hope to muster thousands of people later for a protest to demand a better deal for poor countries.
Elder statesman Nelson Mandela is the undoubted star guest among up to 20,000 expected to attend the event that is held once every two years. The conference will also showcase the latest research on the syndrome.
The overarching theme in Bangkok is "Access for All" and seminars, workshops and poster presentations will put the spotlight on the plight of women and children, the most vulnerable sectors of the population.
Contributions to fighting AIDS have risen substantially in the past two years and are likely to be more than five billion dollars in 2004.
But they are still running woefully short of what is needed with an anticipated 20 billion estimated to be needed by 2007, UNAIDS said.
The World Health Organisation (WHO) has set a target of giving three million poor people access to antiretroviral drugs by the end of 2005, but it is behind schedule with the tally currently around 440,000.
040711
AF040791
©AFP 2004.. All Rights Reserved. AFP articles contained on the AEGiS web site may not be reproduced, distributed, transmitted, displayed, published or broadcast without AFP's prior written permission. You may make one copy of each article for your personal, non-commercial use only; more copies would require AFP's prior written permission. http://www.afp.com/
AEGiS is a 501(c)3, not-for-profit, tax-exempt, educational corporation. AEGiS is made possible through unrestricted grants from Boehringer Ingelheim, Elton John AIDS Foundation, the National Library of Medicine, Bridgestone Firestone Trust Fund and donations from users like you. Always watch for outdated information. This article first appeared in 2004. This material is designed to support, not replace, the relationship that exists between you and your doctor.
©1990, 2004 - AEGiS. AEGiS presents published material, reprinted with permission and neither endorses nor opposes any material. All materials appearing on AEGiS are protected by copyright as a collective work or compilation under U.S. copyright and other laws and are the property of AEGiS, or the party credited as the provider of the content.
