The Asia-Pacific region risks an AIDS crisis similar in scale to Africa's crisis unless governments across the region step up efforts to combat the spread of the disease, the United Nations has warned.
A study by the Manila-based Asian Development Bank (ADB) and UNAIDS, said that there were over seven million people infected with the virus in the Asia-Pacific region with half a million dying of the disease each year.
A total of 10 million people in the Asia-Pacific region will be newly-infected by the disease between 2004 and 2010 and the annual death toll will rise by over 750,000 by 2010, the study added.
Both the Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN) and the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum (APEC) "need to get the action much accelerated," said Kathleen Cravero, deputy executive director of the UN agency battling the AIDS spread.
She told a forum in the Philippine capital that the ASEAN region "had made good progress in the last couple of years but like most of Asia, it is moving too late and too slow".
"The time is now for regional institutions to step up and accelerate their action at a regional level and with individual countries," Ms Cravero said.
"We believe the economic, political and regional institutions in Asia have a great responsibility now because Asia has a window of opportunity to make sure an AIDS epidemic never takes hold ... as it did in Africa," she said.
She called on these institutions to provide resources to individual countries to deal with AIDS and for the national leaders to take a role in combating the spread of the virus.
"Those [APEC] leaders should stand up, these leaders should be promoting strong advocacy, knowledge and awareness," at their annual summits, she added.
Ms Cravero praised the Asian Development Bank for allocating funds to help in controlling AIDS, an incurable disease caused by the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) that kills by weakening the body's immune system.
ASEAN includes Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Burma, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam.
APEC includes most of these countries as well as Australia, Canada, Chile, China, Hong Kong, Japan, South Korea, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea, Peru, Russia, Taiwan and the United States.
--AFP
|
Thread abonnieren
ein investment, was ich liegen lasse und ab und zu mal schaue. hatte ich irgendwann schon geschrieben. die kohle ist für mich abgeschrieben und wenn die aufträge kommen, dann prost. um kurzfristig kohle zu machen, gibt es momentan bessere möglichkeiten. bei caly tut sich ohne aufträge nichts. ;O) 
