Marwaan Macan-Markar
BANGKOK, Jul 18 2006 (IPS) – An independent commission launched in New Delhi aims to get leaders of Asia-Pacific countries to stand up and take note of the daunting challenge posed by the spread of HIV/AIDS -including increased poverty and development setbacks.
The political leadership in this region is not alive to the fact that a large number of people are infected and that will have socio-economic consequences, J.V.R. Prasada Rao, director of the Joint United Nations Programme of HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) Asia-Pacific office, told IPS. We have to find new ways of dealing with this issue and provoking interest.
For one, smaller countries in the region with a growing number of people with HIV/AIDS must be told what the socio-economic cost of the pandemic for each of them is, said Rao. Others, including giants India and China, must learn about how HIV is affecting their health budgets and what the diversion of resources to fight AIDS will mean to them, he said.
The ten-member body, which declared its mission to the press on the weekend, is headed by Chakravarthy Rangarajan, chief economist to the Indian prime minister. Included are leading economists, scientists and civil society actors working on AIDS-related issues.
(The commission will) generate adequate information to show to leaders and governments in the region the urgent necessity to invest in AIDS if they are to maintain their achievements in development, Rangarajan said at the launch of the commission. Development experts need to describe in greater detail the kind of impact AIDS will have on societies and the development of countries in the region.
The establishment of this non-U.N. entity, which is expected to offer its findings and recommendations by December 2007, comes at a time when the Asia-Pacific region is staring at the rising economic losses due to the killer disease. In 2001, this region lost some 7.3 billion US dollars to the pandemic. But by 2010, the economic losses to the region as a result of AIDS are expected to reach 17.5 billion dollars per year.
And the only way to stall that trend, according to the Asian Development Bank (AsDB), which supplied the estimates, is a stronger response in three areas. They are preventive efforts, more information to vulnerable groups at risk of being infected and better health care for people with the deadly virus.
If we invest sufficiently now, the region could save two billion dollars per year by 2010, Dr. Jacques Jeugmans, principle health specialist at the Manila-based international financial institution, said in an interview. The epidemic is still concentrated in a few high risk groups and this is where the main investment is needed.
Failure to respond to the rising number of AIDS cases will result in an increase in the number of people in poverty and a greater impact among poor households, he added. Most of the vulnerable people are just above the poverty line and we may see them slipping below this line.
The inadequate response in the region to AIDS can be gauged by the limited amount invested to combat it. In 2003, for instance, Asia-Pacific countries needed some 1.5 billion dollars to fund a comprehensive programme against AIDS, but only 200 million dollars was available from all sources of public and donor funding, states the AsDB. By 2007, it adds, the region s funding needs for AIDS are expected to reach 5.1 billion dollars.
These twin realities lack of political interest and financial shortfalls come at a time when reports reveal that the killer virus is still on the march through Asian cities, towns and villages. Some 8.3 million people are living with HIV in Asia more than two-thirds of them in one country, India, UNAIDS revealed in its annual report on the pandemic in May. Countries where HIV rates have increased, it adds, include China, Indonesia and Vietnam, while outbreaks have also been reported in Bangladesh and Pakistan.
Last year, there were 930,000 new infections in the region, while the toll from AIDS-related deaths in 2005 was 600,000. At the same time, those receiving anti-AIDS drugs has risen from 70,000 in 2003 to 180,000 in 2005, nearly half of them in Thailand.
In June, the Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP), a Bangkok-based U.N. regional body, sounded the alarm on the growing numbers of Asian youth among the newly infected. Young people are the hardest hit half of all new infections have occurred among youth, it states in a brief study, Turning The Tide Against HIV/AIDS: Targeting Youth.
Two South-east Asian countries convey this pattern, with Vietnam seeing 63 percent of new HIV cases being below 30 years and Thailand with 50-60 percent of new cases among citizens under 24 years. Adolescents and young people are poorly informed about sexuality, reproductive health and the consequences of unprotected sex or drug use, it adds. In a 2004 survey in China, 80 percent of high school students said they had never participated in a course, or in activities related to HIV prevention.
Countries must turn their attention to the spread of HIV in young people as a priority, says the ADB s Jeugmans, since the region s success or failure in combating AIDS rests with this group. They are the most vulnerable. The youth are not informed. There are lots of gaps in informing the young in Asia.
