WHO urges more government action against HIV/AIDS

MANILA (Reuters) - The World Health Organisation urged political leaders in the Western Pacific region to step up efforts to stop the spread of the AIDS virus, saying the number of infections continues to grow.

In 2006, an estimated 8.6 million people in Asia were living with HIV, nearly 1 million of whom were infected in the past year, WHO said on Thursday, calling for greater government action to fight the spread of the virus.

"Countries need to step up efforts to reduce the spread of HIV," said Shigeru Omi, WHO regional director for Western Pacific, covering 37 states, from China in the west to Fiji and Vanuatu to the east.

About half of the new infections in 2006 occurred through unprotected sex, Omi said, pointing to Vietnam and Papua New Guinea as potential hotspots.

The number of people living with HIV in Vietnam has doubled since 2000, reaching about 260,000 people last year. The HIV prevalence rate among adults in Papua New Guinea has also increased dramatically since 2003.

"High risk behaviour, such as injecting drug use, unprotected paid sex and unprotected sex between men, is especially evident in the HIV epidemics in some regions, including Asia," Omi said.

He said an estimated 44 percent of the people living with HIV in Asia were believed to have been infected while injecting drugs. As many as 11 percent of these drug users also engaged in high-risk sexual activities.

WHO, which has its West Pacific headquarters in Manila, said risky behaviour among injecting drug users increased the chance of spreading HIV among and beyond at-risk population groups.

In Thailand, one third of new infections were now married women, a group generally considered at "low risk".

WHO said it was putting more emphasis on government accountability for this year's World AIDS Day on Dec. 1, asking political leaders to raise greater awareness of HIV/AIDS and support programmes to stop the spread of the chronic disease.

Omi said the WHO was pushing for fresh strategies to prevent HIV transmission, including efforts to discourage sharing of drug paraphernalia, reduce stigmatisation and promote voluntary counselling and testing.

Omi said WHO was also calling for better marketing of condom use in the region.