Important note: Information in this article was accurate in 1999. The state of the art may have changed since the publication date.
The Associated Press - Saturday, Oct. 23, 1999
Alvin Ung, Associated Press Writer
"AIDS has never posed a bigger threat to development than it does now," Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad said in his opening speech at the four-day conference. "And unless something is done it will pose an even bigger threat in the years to come."
About 3,000 experts, activists and AIDS patients attending the fifth International Congress on AIDS in Asia hope to curb HIV's spread in developing nations, where about 95 percent of people infected with the virus that causes AIDS live.
About 7 million people in the Asia-Pacific region are living with AIDS or HIV, the virus that causes AIDS. At least half of new cases worldwide are in South and Southeast Asia.
Mahathir said the disease can only be controlled if Asian countries cooperate by stanching the flow of illegal migrant workers and the trafficking of women and children, and demanding cheaper drugs.
"Profit is taking precedent over people's lives," Mahathir said. "But this high cost need not be so if developing countries can get together and challenge the pharmaceutical companies to reduce the prices or to allow developing countries the right to produce cheaper drugs to save the lives of their people."
Mahathir, a physician, called on "the governments of the rich" to assist pharmaceutical companies by bearing the cost of research so prices can be lowered.
Much of the conference will focus on religious and cultural taboos that have stood in the way of AIDS prevention.
Islam has no clear guidelines on using condoms, however, encouraging the use of condoms outside marriage is often looked upon as promoting promiscuity, and some religious communities brush off AIDS as punishment for an immoral act.
Mahathir criticized religious authorities for shirking responsibility over the increasing number of infected people.
"For too long, many religious officials have hidden behind a veil of denial, condemning those who have been infected while doing little to prevent others from suffering the same fate," he said.
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