Important note: Information in this article was accurate in 2007. The state of the art may have changed since the publication date.
Bangkok Post - August 21, 2007
Apiradee Treerutkuarkul
Deborah Landey, deputy executive director of the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/Aids (UNAids), said the soaring infection rate among housewives was alarming and intervention programmes needed to be urgently scaled up to curb the spread.
She was speaking at the opening of the eighth International Congress on Aids in Asia and the Pacific held in Colombo.
The Aids epidemic is constantly changing, she said, and it's important to know the current situation so effective HIV prevention and treatment campaigns can be tailored to help those in need.
In Thailand, up to 40% of the 18,000 new cases found each year are housewives, which was previously identified as a low-risk group.
Most housewives contract the virus from their promiscuous husbands who have had casual sex.
The number was high compared to so-called high-risk groups, such as men having sex with men (28%) and sex workers (10%).
In response, Public Health Minister Mongkol na Songkhla plans to promote a "family condom" campaign to encourage married couples to stay monogamous.
An estimated 580,000 adults and children in Thailand were living with HIV at the end of 2005, according to UNAids.
In the region, Ms Landey said, the situation has worsened in Papua New Guinea, where half of new Aids cases are housewives. Housewives also account for at least 46% of all new cases in Cambodia, she said.
Ms Landey called on policymakers of countries in the region to increase funding to the fight against Aids, especially among innocent and vulnerable groups like housewives and marginalised people.
Myung Hwan Cho, president of Aids Society Asia Pacific, said the Aids response in the region was inadequate. The region can expect 12 million new Aids cases by 2010 unless immediate action is taken and cooperation between policymakers, the public and the private sectors is strengthened.
The latest statistics show one-fifth of the Asian population is HIV-positive.
"We now need not only more condoms, but also more treatment and different approaches to combat Aids in the region. Better action is needed because we're still a long way behind the epidemic," said Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa.
He called on governments in Asia to join hands with the public and private sectors, particularly manufacturers and marketers of Aids drugs, to ensure drugs are available to all at affordable prices.
"The threat to the well-being of humanity posed by HIV/Aids is such that it is necessary to rethink established policies with regard to patents and ownership of essential drugs, and think in terms of more liberal policies that are based on the needs of the people," he said.
Sri Lanka has one of the lowest infection rates in the world, with an estimated 5,000 people living with HIV.
However, the president said, the figure did not reflect the risk across Asia, and vigilance against infection in the world's most populous region had to remain constant.
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