Fridae.com reports on the alarming rate of increase of HIV cases in Asia and what the Gay community can do to prevent it.
SINGAPORE - Dec 1, 2006
HIV/AIDS is hitting Asia in a big way, and MSM are now bearing the brunt of it. Dr Tan Chong Kee urges all MSM to ask ourselves what we can do to stop the spread of HIV among the community.
In July 2004, Dr Bates Gill, the Freeman Chair in China Studies from the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, testified to the Asia and the Pacific subcommittee of the US House of Representatives’ Committee on International Relations. He entitled his testimony “The Coming ‘Second Wave’: HIV/AIDS in Asia.”
When Dr Gill sounded that alarm more than two years ago, HIV/AIDS among Asian MSM (men who have sex with men) was not considered a serious issue. He made no mention of it in his testimony. In just two short years, the situation has completely changed. HIV infections among MSM in many parts of Asia are now showing a sharp rise.
Dr Gill states that: “The center of gravity of the global epidemic is shifting perceptibly eastward from Africa and increasingly affects Eurasia.” This shift that Dr Gill noticed is now in full swing. The most recent update released by UNAIDS, published on 21 November 2006, show that South and Southeast Asia is now in second place behind only Africa with a total of 860,000 new infections in one year, and about 7.8 million persons living with HIV/AIDS. Let’s take the smaller figure of 860,000 and think what it means. It means almost one new infection every 36 seconds. By the time you’ve read this far, two more people have already become HIV+ somewhere in South and Southeast Asia.
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