Important note: Information in this article was accurate in 2006. The state of the art may have changed since the publication date.
Important note: Information in this article was accurate in 2006. The state of the art may have changed since the publication date.
Reuters NewMedia - December 1, 2006
Kamil Zaheer
As people across continents threw a spotlight on the scourge of AIDS, secretive North Korea claimed complete success in its fight against the deadly infection and U.N. officials said Pakistan was in denial about the extent of its problem.
Nearly 40 million people live with HIV worldwide, 2.6 million more than in 2004. Of these, south and southeast Asia have 7.8 million cases.
India alone has 5.7 million cases, the highest number of infections in the world, but health officials say an estimated 86 percent of them are not even aware they are infected.
Hundreds of those who are aware gathered in the heart of the Indian capital, New Delhi, demanding that the government provide second-line ARV drugs free to those who have developed resistance to first-line medication.
"I know I'm dying but if I get the drug I can live," said 38-year-old Umashanker Pandey, an emaciated HIV-positive man from the western state of Gujarat. "I need the second line or else I don't know what will happen to me."
Nearby, dozens of HIV-positive men and women shouted "We want second line" as riot police kept watch.
According to India's National AIDS Organization (NACO), only around 50,000 people get free ARV drugs from the government, a number New Delhi wants to push to 100,000 in a year.
India does not provide free second-line drugs to those who develop resistance to first-line ARVs, saying too many people are waiting to start initial treatment.
At least 500,000 -- possibly many more -- HIV-positive Indians need ARV treatment.
About five to 10 percent of cases develop resistance to first-line ARVs and are forced to buy more expensive second-line drugs from pharmacies or go to voluntary groups for help.
"We are caught between two unacceptable problems," UNAIDS India chief Denis Broun said, referring to the need to start people on ARVs while trying to help the minority who have developed resistance to first line drugs.
"TIP OF THE ICEBERG"
The United Nations voiced worries about China too, calling for overcoming stigma and discrimination in its vast interior.
"There is no longer a big challenge at the central government. The challenge is now firmly in the provinces," U.N. China Resident Coordinator Khalid Malik said.
The Chinese health ministry last week reported the number of HIV/AIDS cases stood at 183,733, up from 144,089 at the end of 2005, but Malik said this was just the "tip of the iceberg".
"Asian societies are reluctant to talk about sex ... silence does kill, so we need to talk about it a lot more," he said.
The United Nations estimates China's HIV-positive populaton at 650,000, and experts say the epidemic is gradually spreading to the general population from high-risk groups like drug users.
In Indonesia, health and education workers planned to start handing out one million condoms on Friday evening, targeting sex workers and customers at various nightlife districts of the capital Jakarta. The campaign will last for a month.
Current estimates put Indonesia's HIV cases in a range of 169,000-216,000, in a total population of 220 million.
Drug users account for over half of Indonesia's known cases, but sex workers and customers are the most likely to spread the disease, Health Minister Siti Fadilah Supari said this week.
The country is projecting half a million HIV cases by 2010, and double that if preventive steps are not taken.
Reclusive North Korea said in an official media report its leader, Kim Jong-il, was deeply concerned about AIDS prevention.
"North Korea has established a strategy to prevent the spread of AIDS with systematic monitoring and testing systems, directed by Kim Jong-il, and is making efforts to prevent even one person from contacting the disease," its Minju Joson newspaper said.
UNAIDS has no definitive data on HIV in the country, which is under tight political control. It was estimated in 2002, there were less than 100 cases in a population of just over 22 million.
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Additional reporting by Prithwish Ganguly in New Delhi, Mita Valina Liem in Jakarta and Kim So-young in SEOUL
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