India & China are at increased risk of HIV / AIDS

At the 16th AIDS Conference in the city of Toronto (Canada), delegates from Asia have voiced alarms about the situation of the disease is on the rise in difficult to control in two eastern countries The world's most populous people China and India - where the number of women infected with HIV increases rapidly due to social stigma, poverty, weak education systems, labor mobility, human trafficking . .

Propaganda against AIDS in a rural area of ​​India.
(Photo: baocantho)

The report of " AIDS in South Asia: The Understanding and Complex Pandemic Response " of the World Bank (WB) announced at the conference raised the alarm for HIV / AIDS situation in India. While making significant progress in limiting the spread of the disease of the century, this South Asian nation - which accounts for 40% of Asia's population - has an HIV population of nearly 60% of all 10 million infections in the country. green. According to the United Nations AIDS Agency (UNAIDS), by the end of 2005 India had about 5.7 million people infected with HIV, surpassing South Africa (with 5.5 million patients) becoming a country with HIV prevalence. / AIDS is the highest in the world.

Injecting HIV / AIDS vaccine on volunteer patients in China.(Photo: baocantho)

Homosexual sex is the leading agent causing widespread HIV / AIDS in India, followed by prostitution and drug injection. Recent research results show that HIV infection rates in some southern Indian states tend to decrease thanks to effective application of antiviral drug delivery programs. However, according to the evaluation of international health organizations, the treatment and care of AIDS patients in India has not been given adequate attention, especially in the Northern region - the centralized intersection of Subjects of drug addiction come from Pakistan 's, Afghan and Bangladeshi' cone points . According to UNAIDS, in 2005 only 7% of patients needed antiretroviral therapy to access drugs and 1.6% of pregnant women were given methods to prevent mother-to-child HIV transmission.

Right now if the Indian government does not take measures to stop the infection, by 2026 there will be 16 million people " going " because of HIV / AIDS. Economically, the report ' Macroeconomics and Impacts of India's HIV / AIDS ' by the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) says the country's economic growth of nearly 1 billion people is unavoidable. affected if the rate of AIDS spread is not controlled. Estimated to the fiscal year 2015-2016, economic growth will decrease by 0.86% while GDP per capita will decrease by 0.55%. The current problem is the fund for propaganda and AIDS campaigns, the care and medicine for patients is still quite tight . Recently, the World Bank has given India a loan of USD 380 million to implement the AIDS prevention initiative while US billionaire Bill Gates is looking for effective projects in this country to disburse part of the $ 3 billion fund.

Meanwhile, although China has a lower rate of HIV and AIDS-related deaths, it is warned to shoulder this deadly disease once it becomes a national problem. The country currently has about 650,000 people living with HIV / AIDS (accounting for 0.05% of the population), according to recent general statistics of the Chinese Ministry of Health, World Health Organization (WHO) and UNAIDS in early 2006. Last year, Trung

LACK OF RESPONSE TO HEALTHY MEDICAL EMPLOYEES IN THE " HOT AREAS" ON AIDS

At the Global Conference on AIDS, the World Health Organization (WHO) has issued a warning about a serious shortage of health workers in developing countries that are now considered "" hot areas ". 'about HIV / AIDS in the world.

WHO reports that developing countries have a high proportion of HIV / AIDS infected people needing more than 4 million health workers to cope with this century's disease. The shortage of doctors, nurses and medical staff in developing countries is getting worse, partly due to " brain drain" , partly because these medical workers are also sick. AIDS is expected to cost at least $ 7.2 billion over the next five years to address the shortage of health workers in 60 countries with the highest prevalence of HIV in the world. This may even reach $ 14 billion.

The southern Sahara desert region, which accounts for two-thirds of the 39 million people, must live with HIV / AIDS in the world, the region with the most serious medical shortage.In South Africa, 37% of locally trained doctors move abroad.

The country has 25,000 deaths from AIDS and more than 70,000 new infections, of which the majority are infected by sex, drug injection and mother-to-child transmission. Recently, although China has applied many measures to prevent and control HIV / AIDS infection, the effectiveness has not been high. The reason is due to the poor management of the state, the lack of care of the community, the shortage of health workers and the attitude of "underestimating" the diseases of some parts of the population, especially gender. young. The Ministry of Health's survey in March showed that Chinese students are poor in knowledge about HIV / AIDS, with only 67% of 1,919 students in 24 universities being asked to understand the danger of sick. On the other hand, only 25% of patients have access to antiviral drugs, partly because the patients are unable to buy drugs because of high drug prices while the state budget does not support much.

Compared with 25 million deaths and 40 million people infected with HIV / AIDS globally, the corresponding rate in China is not in the high alert, but with the highest population density in the world, WHO experts warn. China's face of high HIV / AIDS transmission is inevitable. If China does not control effectively, the disease will not only rob more lives but also cause heavy losses to the economy, estimated at $ 42.25 billion in the next five years. Recently, the Chinese government has pledged to promote its anti-HIV / AIDS campaign and aims to limit the number of AIDS patients to not exceed 1.5 million by 2010.

According to the World Bank, the spread of HIV / AIDS prevention should be based on two options. First, the government needs to develop effective prevention programs for those groups at high risk of infection. Next, address top social and economic issues such as poverty, illiteracy, trafficking in women . In addition, each country should design prevention programs. to suit the local conditions, rather than according to the options that are applied both regionally and globally but do not in fact produce the expected results.

NGUYEN TRUC & HA