Important note: Information in this article was accurate in 1997. The state of the art may have changed since the publication date.

Reuters NewMedia, Inc. - Tuesday October 28 8:07 AM EST
Ruben Alabastro

"Throughout our region, governments ... fail to respond properly to HIV/AIDS. The rhetoric may be there. But effective responses are not," Michael Kirby, president of the International Commission of Jurists, told the meeting attended by 65 nations.

Kirby, who has been involved for years in the fight against AIDS, said he felt "rage at the huge expenditures on armaments and the tiny trickle of the world's capital spent on the scientific endeavour to cure or arrest" the disease.

Arms spending by Southeast Asian states in 1995 exceeded $9 billion, a private group, the Political and Economic Risk Consultancy, said last year.

United Nations statistics show that as of last year about 23 million people were carrying the human immunodeficiency virus, which causes acquired immune deficiency syndrome.

U.N. officials said the number of Asians affected by the virus, already estimated at seven million, could double by the turn of the century to surpass Africa as the worst affected region.

Kirby, a judge on Australia's supreme court, the High Court, urged Asian governments to go beyond mere rhetoric in fighting the disease.

"It is very important that ... in the business of AIDS which is the business of saving lives we respond with more than words. Too many conferences, too many words, not enough action."

Indian and Nepalese members of the Australia-based Asian Harm Reduction Network, an activist group, slammed some hospitals for allegedly refusing to treat people with the HIV virus.

One Indian youth was given a run-around by some hospitals in New Delhi before one finally admitted him but he died later without anyone attending to him, the group said in a statement.

"He was stigmatised even in death. He had labels stuck all over him, saying, 'HIV positive'... A placard was put on his bed, all around, 'HIV positive,"' the group said.

Asian Development Bank Vice President Peter Sullivan said the AIDS epidemic was "the enemy of Asian promise."

"It imposes huge economic costs on societies, families and individuals, and endangers the economic development of countries of Asia," he said.

The explosive spread of AIDS had arisen from the lethal combination of a huge commercial sex industry, intravenous drug use, official complacency and limited funds, he said.

Even if it cannot be cured, the disease can be prevented with forward looking strategies, Sullivan said.

"Prevention is an investment for the future... As the epidemic is still at an early stage in most Asian countries, the returns on investment in preventive measures are extremely attractive."

While governments had a key role to play, the private sector should take a leading part in combating the disease.

"But most firms have not done so. Many employers are still largely unaware of the economic implications. Others, even if they do have some idea, are deterred by the size of start-up costs of training programs, have concerns about their effectiveness or simply have short-term horizons," he said.

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