BANGKOK, July 11 (AFP) - The global battle against AIDS faces catastrophic failure because of a lack of money, a senior official warned Sunday, as 17,000 people gathered here for the world's largest AIDS conference.
Experts said Asia was shaping up to be the key battleground in attempts to halt the growing number of people with HIV/AIDS as UN Secretary General Kofi Annan warned the region could see its economic boom snuffed out unless leaders seriously tackled the threat.
AIDS activists were also taking to the streets before the start of the 15th and largest International AIDS Conference to call to account big business and governments that had failed to face up to the threat.
Agencies involved in combating HIV/AIDS were expected to use the conference as a platform to demand more money to fight the pandemic, with new major crises threatening the world's most populous continent Asia and Eastern Europe.
Experts have warned that HIV/AIDS in Asia has the potential to exceed the disaster in sub-Saharan Africa where the worst hit countries such as Swaziland and Botswana have HIV infection rates nearing 40 percent of the population.
Richard Feachem, director of the Global Fund to fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, said disaster loomed unless key contributors such as the United States and Europe put up the 3.5 billion dollars needed for programmes in 2005.
"If the Global Fund cannot continue to grow in its support for programmes against AIDS, TB and Malaria, the result is catastrophic, and we will not win," Feachem told reporters.
"We will not turn around the HIV/AIDS pandemic, we will not stop TB, we will not roll back malaria. It's absolutely black and white," he added.
Activists have criticized the administration of US President George W. Bush for launching its own mechanism to funnel 15 billion dollars over five years to fight AIDS in Africa and the Caribbean, instead of using the Global Fund, which provides cash to countries for their own projects.
The Global Fund is the leading foundation funding the fight against HIV and AIDS.
Experts have warned that Asian leaders have a three-year window to tackle the disease but UN chief Annan urged them not to miss the opportunity on Sunday.
"Here in Asia, HIV/AIDS stands at a turning point," Annan told delegates to the second Asia-Pacific meeting on HIV/AIDS in Bangkok ahead of the official opening ceremony.
"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."
The United Nations 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.
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.
More than 20 million people have died of AIDS since the condition was first detected among a group of US homosexuals in 1981.
About 38 million people throughout the world are estimated to be infected with the virus, which wrecks the immune system and leaves the body vulnerable to opportunistic diseases.
The six-day conference here 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.
Elder statesman Nelson Mandela is the undoubted star guest among the 17,000 expected to come to the event, with its overarching theme of "Access for All".
Contributions to fighting AIDS have risen substantially in the past two years and are likely to reach more than five billion dollars in 2004.
But they are still running woefully short of what is required with an anticipated 20 billion estimated to be needed by 2007, UNAIDS said.
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