6th ICAAP opens

[Guest guest]

Dear Forum members,

[The 6th ICAAP was opned last night in Melbourne. Shabana Ashmi M.P

was one of the speaker. There is a substantial Indian presence at the 6th ICAAP,

but, while revieding the program it appears that not necessarly

Indian concerns will be addressed in the sessions: Moderator]

By EMMA TINKLER, Associated Press Writer

MELBOURNE, Australia (AP) - Delegates at an AIDS conference warned

governments in Asia and the Pacific on Friday that they can no longer

ignore an epidemic that has infected 6.4 million people in the region

and is spreading quickly.

Activists also called on drug companies to put people before profit

in the fight against AIDS. Drug manufacturers have come under

increasing pressure to lower their prices for poorer countries.

Representatives from 40 countries attended a gala ceremony Friday

night to officially open the Sixth International Congress on AIDS in

Asia and the Pacific, which runs until Wednesday in the southern

Australian city of Melbourne.

Some 36 million people around the world are living with HIV the virus

that leads to AIDS, according to the United Nations' AIDS agency,

UNAIDS. In East Asia and the Pacific, about 6.4 million people carry

the virus.

Werasit Sittitrai, Associate Director of UNAIDS' Asia, Pacific and

Middle East Division, said the congress comes at a time when some

countries have become complacent about the virus.

``A lot of countries feel that AIDS is not here, and will not be

here,'' Sittitrai said at a news conference before the opening.

Indonesian HIV activist Suzana Murni said not enough people with the

sickness were able to get drugs in Asia.

``I believe important drugs like HIV drugs should be available as a

choice for patients and not a luxury,'' said Murni. ``We must put

people's life before profit.''

A U.N.-sponsored report released Thursday by Monitoring the AIDS

Pandemic Network, a non-governmental organization, showed that the

once relatively low levels of infection of HIV/AIDS in Asia have

increased markedly.

While only Thailand, Myanmar and Cambodia showed substantial HIV

epidemics in 1999, the virus has now begun spreading rapidly in

Indonesia, Iran, Japan, Nepal and Vietnam, the report said. In China -

home to a fifth of the world's people - the infection is moving into

new groups of the population, the report said.

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