AEGiS-Bangkok Post: HIV/AIDS: WHO finds prevention programme in SE Asia poor

Important note: Information in this article was accurate in 2006. The state of the art may have changed since the publication date.

HIV/AIDS: WHO finds prevention programme in SE Asia poor

Bangkok Post - November 1, 2006
Apiradee Treerutkuarkul

Southeast Asia's Aids prevention programme is failing due to a lack of commitment to fighting the epidemic across the region, the World Health Organisation (WHO) said yesterday. "The Southeast Asia region is not an exception to the documented global low coverage in prevention services," Thierry Mertens, special adviser to the WHO Regional Office for Southeast Asia, said in a regional meeting attended by medical experts from 11 countries yesterday.

"Despite effective interventions such as condom use, the coverage of these prevention interventions across the region has been poor."

Southeast Asian countries still face high risks of a massive spread of the HIV virus, mainly due to people's ignorance about condom use and the high prevalence of sexual transmission of the disease, he said.

According to a WHO report from 2005, there are an estimated 6.7 million people living with HIV/Aids in the Southeast Asian region. This year's figures will be released on World Aids Day on Dec 1.

A recent survey of more than 1,000 people carried out by a Thai non-governmental organisation suggested that up to 17% of male homosexuals living in urban areas were HIV positive.

Dr Mertens said a lack of political commitment, weak healthcare services and insufficient human resources were hampering efforts to fight the spread of HIV and other sexually-transmitted diseases such as tuberculosis and hepatitis C across the region.

Public health permanent secretary Prat Boonyawongvirote said yesterday that condom use had to be boosted as a part of the national HIV prevention campaign.

Health officials will also focus on scaling up access to the current antiretroviral treatment programme, he said.

Another 30,000 HIV-positive patients will be placed on the programme to receive the locally made generic antiretroviral drug GPO-vir, he said.

So far, 82,000 out of a total 304,265 Thai people registered as living with HIV/Aids have been placed on the programme.

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