ASIA/SRI LANKA - Thanks to basic instruction, social programmes and prevention, and growing awareness there is optimism for the reduced diffusion of AIDS in the Asia-Pacific zone

Monday, 3 September 2007

Colombo (Agenzia Fides) - Experts taking part in the 8th International Meeting on AIDS in the Asia-Pacific area, which just ended in capital of Sri Lanka, launched a message of hope in which they say prospects to gain control of the pandemic are good.
The optimism is due to the fact that this region, the most populous in the world, shows a relatively low rate of contagion by the HIV virus despite widespread poverty and discrimination.
The Meeting in Colombo was attended by 2,500 academics, infectivologists, activists and persons infected by the HIV virus or AIDS from 70 different countries who discussed the actual state of the pandemic, shared experience and identified means to reduce its diffusion.
According to official figures, 0.1% of the 20 million people in the region are HIV+, in June this year 886 new cases were registered. Other sources say however that at the end of 2005 there were 4,500 infected persons.
Addressing the Meeting the president of Sri Lanka Mahinda Rajapakse said the numbers had been reduced by higher instruction rates in some countries, thanks to social and preventive programmes as well as growing awareness.
According to the World Health Organisation WHO in 2006 in Asia between 2.8 and 9.8 million people were infected. Also in 2006 between 140,000 and 610,000 people died of AIDS related illnesses. WHO also said the number of HIV carriers treated with anti-retroviral drugs has tripled since 2003, reaching a total 235,.000 in June 2006, (16% of the infections which need this type of treatment in all Asia).
The president of the NGO Lanka Plus, Princey Mangalika, HIV +, called attention to the scarcity of hospitals in Sri Lanka equipped to treat patients with HIV/AIDS, and said more free treatment should be made available, especially in rural areas. (AP) (3/9/2007 Agenzia Fides; Righe:32; Parole:353)


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