The number of people in Asia living with HIV is estimated at more than 8.3 million
TORONTO, 12 August 2006: The AIDS virus is spreading rapidly among homosexuals and bisexuals in Asia, driven by stigma, ignorance and government inaction, according to an international report.
The survey of 23 countries was released a day ahead of the world's biggest-ever AIDS conference, which opens on Sunday in the Canadian city of Toronto.
It said rates of HIV infection among men who have sex with men could be as high as 14 per cent in the Cambodian capital of Phnom Penh; 16 per cent in Andhra Pradesh, India; and 28 per cent in Bangkok.
"More alarming, dramatic increases in some areas have been seen in just the past two years," said the authors, a Bangkok-based group called TREAT Asia (Therapeutics Research, Education, and AIDS Training in Asia), an initiative launched by amFAR, the U.S.-based Foundation for AIDS Research that is considered one of the world's leading non-profit AIDS organisations.
is a network of clinics, hospitals, and research institutions working to ensure the safe and effective delivery of HIV/AIDS treatments throughout Asia and the Pacific.
"These data represent an alarming trend, since male-male sexual activity in the region is diverse, often completely hidden, and beyond the reach of current prevention efforts," the authors added.
At the end of last year, 38.6 million people were living with the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV); 8.3 million of them in Asia, according to the latest estimates by UNAIDS, the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV and AIDS.
Around 4.1 million people globally became infected in 2005, of which an estimated 930,000 were in Asia.
Southeast Asia, especially Thailand, was among the first of the world's regions to be badly hit by AIDS, and analysts have long worried that China and India could follow the same path.
The TREAT Asia estimates are based on a search of published studies and epidemiological data and on 45 interviews with AIDS researchers, counsellors and government officials in 19 countries.
The report says there are a range of factors behind a rapidly growing rise in HIV infection, which it says is being hidden - often for cultural or legal reasons.
Gay sex is outlawed in nearly half of the countries surveyed, and many Asian men who have sex with men are also bisexual, which means they compartmentalise their behaviour and are rarely tested for HIV.
In Phnom Penh, for instance, 78 per cent of such men used condoms consistently when visiting female sex workers, but only 47 per cent did so when visiting male prostitutes.
Among gays who were studied in Beijing, half reported having had unprotected anal sex in the past six months, and only 15 per cent considered themselves to be at risk from the AIDS virus.
"Governments in the region and international donors need to support appropriate prevention, care and treatment efforts for MSM [men who have sex with men] populations, or face a spiralling epidemic that could be far worse than any seen in gay communities in the West," said Kevin Frost, vice-president of clinical research at amfAR and director of TREAT Asia.
The International AIDS Conference, held every two years, opens on Sunday and runs until Friday, August 18. Some 20,000 researchers, campaigners and public-health experts are expected to attend.
