Piot: Asia is the new front line of AIDS epidemic. - REUTERS
JAKARTA, Indonesia (Reuters):
AIDS IS not getting enough attention in the West and especially in Asia, the epidemic's new "front line", a top United Nations official said ahead of World AIDS Day.
This warning comes only a week after a UNAIDS/World Trade Organisation report showed that the number of people living with AIDS was increasing in every region across the world except the Caribbean.
UNAIDS Executive Director Peter Piot said he was marking World AIDS Day in Indonesia tomorrow because he wanted to highlight the risks to a region which is home to the world's fastest-growing economies.
"On the one hand, AIDS has made it to one of the top global issues of our time," he said in an interview on Monday.
SLIPPING OFF THE AGENDA
"On the other hand, in many countries AIDS is slipping off the agenda. That is certainly true in the Western world, in Asia now with bird flu coming out.
"(But) Asia is the new front line of the AIDS epidemic ... In Asia, I think the spread will continue for some time because we don't simply reach enough people with prevention messages."
Almost five million people were infected by HIV globally in 2005, the highest jump since the first reported case in 1981 and taking the number living with the virus to a record 40.3 million, UNAIDS said a week ago.
More than 3.1 million people have died this year from AIDS around the world - far more than the toll from all natural disasters since last December's Asian tsunami.
