Experts warn men buying sex aggravates AIDS spread in Asia

Girls look at candles during an AIDS International Candlelight Memorial in Belgrade May 18, 2008. The large number of men in Asia who seek prostitution has become an important medium for the spread of HIV/AIDS in the Asia Pacific region, UN health officials warned Friday.
(Chinese media/Reuters Photo)
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MANILA, Nov. 28 (Chinese media) -- The large number of men

in Asia who seek prostitution has become an important medium for the spread of

HIV/AIDS in the Asia Pacific region, UN health officials warned here Friday.

At the launching ceremony of a on-line database on

HIV/AIDS on Friday, Anupama Rao Singh, head of UNICEF East Asia-Pacific Regional

office said there are estimated 75 million Asian men "regularly" buying sex from

about 10 million Asian females who sell it, according to studies of the

Commission of AIDS in Asia.

"We cannot overlook the threat of HIV's continued

transmission through the sex trade," Singh said. "Because the implications on

HIV trend among women and children are grave."

She said that throughout Asia, an alarmingly large

number of wives were found infected by their husbands or sex partners who

engaged in unprotected sex trade. And the virus can still be passed on to the

next generation when the wives become pregnant.

Experts of the United Nations Children's Fund

(UNICEF), the Joint United Nations Program on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS), World Health

Organization (WHO), and the Asian Development Bank (ADB) gathered Friday in the

Philippine capital of Manila to unveil the on-line database that will facilitate

researchers, policy-makers and civil groups who would need to do AIDS/HIV

research in the region.

The site (www.aidsdatahub.org) contains consistently

updated information on core HIV/AIDS indicators and national response in 24

countries and regions in east, southeast, and south Asia.

At the ceremony, Amala Reddy, regional program

advisor of UNAIDS Asia and the Pacific, warned that because the "relatively

large size" of men who buy sex, they have become a "powerful factor" in the

spread of HIV/AIDS in the region.

She said that in Asia, about 50 million women who

have no other behavior other than being the wives of men who are on this trend

(buying sex) unfortunately risk being contracted with HIV/AIDS.

According to data revealed by UNICEF, Asian women,

categorized as low-risk group, now represent less than 25 percent of all HIV

infections but the proportion could have shoot up to 30 percent by2015, mostly

infected through their husbands and sex partners.

Quoting UNAIDS report, Reddy said currently there are

5 million people in Asia living with HIV/AIDS with around 400,000 people being

newly infected every year.

She said the number is likely to soar to 500,000 by

2010 when the accumulated number of HIV infection cases in Asia rise up to 10

million.

Reddy said, however, UNAIDS experts don't expect the

infection percentage of population in Asia will be as high as the case of

Africa, for most infection in Asia are concentrated in high risk groups such as

sex workers, intravenous drug users, men who have sex with men.

In Asia, there are around 20 million intravenous drug

users and men who had sex with men, according to the report of Commission of

AIDS in Asia, published earlier this year.

Massimo Ghidinelli, WHO regional advisor on HIV/AIDS,

said besides men who buy sex, men who have sex with men (MSM) without using

condom is another high-risk group that needs particular attention in the region.

He said WHO even could not get a "fully accurate

picture" on the exact magnitude of the contribution of MSM to AIDS spread

because of the sensitivity of the issue and neglects of the governments.

"It is a new phenomenon and we have insufficient

understandings and studies." Ghidinelli said. "The problem may be much greater

than what we have believed."

But UN health officials said the use of condom has

been proved an effective way to stem the virus spread.

"There should be mass awareness campaigns, aggressive

promotion of condom usage. The experience in Thailand and Cambodia proves it

works," Reddy said.

"We know the ways. It is only that political leaders

have to have the political will to do the right things," she added.