Important note: Information in this article was accurate in 2002. The state of the art may have changed since the publication date.
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Associated Press - Tuesday December 17, 2002
The island nation of 18.6 million people has a "narrow window of opportunity to prevent a nationwide AIDS epidemic," the statement said.
Nearly 4,800 people in Sri Lanka are infected with HIV, the virus that causes AIDS, according to the United Nations Program on AIDS and the World Health Organization.
The World Bank grant will finance a national HIV and AIDS prevention project. It will also support the island nation's efforts to reduce the risk of an emerging epidemic of tuberculosis, to which HIV infected patients are particularly susceptible, the statement said.
Sri Lanka has raised its health and educational standards to levels comparable with developed countries, but the recent increase in the numbers of AIDS and tuberculosis infections was posing a new threat, it said.
The World Bank commended government efforts to control the deadly disease, but said the measures were "not sufficient to prevent the further spread of HIV infection among highly vulnerable" people.
The bank urged the government to conduct more awareness programs to reduce the social stigma attached to AIDS and combat discrimination against people with the disease.
According to UNAIDS, more than 42 million people are infected with HIV worldwide, and 16,000 new infections are reported every day.
The disease has killed more than 20 million people since the first clinical evidence of HIV was reported in 1981, the World Bank said.
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