HIV rates stable in Pacific nations but rising in Asia

New statistics reveal the number of people who have HIV has stabilised in Pacific nations while the rate is rising in Asia.

The research findings revealed at a recent conference in Darwin shows the number of HIV and AIDS cases has risen in Indonesia, Pakistan and the Philippines while there have been significant declines in Cambodia and Thailand.

Associate Professor David Wilson, an epidemiologist with the Kirby Institute at the University of New South Wales, has told Radio Australia’s Pacific Beat although rates have stabilised in the Pacific, there is still concern they could rise swiftly again.

Audio: Epidemiologist David Wilson speaks to Pacific Beat (ABC News)

“In Papua New Guinea, it’s quite the stand out for the Pacific, where the burden of HIV is very high…In a lot of the other Pacific island countries, we believe that HIV is relatively stable,” Mr Wilson said.

“A lot of these countries have signed up to some political declarations through the United Nations, where they’ve got targets of trying to get a 50 per cent reduction in incidence.

“Considering we’re just stable at the moment, unfortunately we’re nowhere near that,” he said.

Mr Wilson says more needs to be done to stabilise HIV rates across the whole area of Asia and the Pacific as the levels of prevention and treatment services there are not sufficiently high.

“We need substantial increases in funding, need political will from each of the governments, but also some economic and financial support in some of these countries in order to really achieve the coverage that is required to reduce new infections,” he said.

Mr Wilson says while bilateral donors, such as AusAID, the United States government, and the United Kingdom have provided quite a substantial support over recent years, this cannot be sustained forever due to economic crisis in these countries.

“There’s going to be a transition point in the not to distant future where the rich industrialised countries are not going to be able to support all of these aid responses,” he said.

“As the developed countries pull out their funding, the low income countries are not going to be able to meet the shortfall.

“We’ve seen that in Romania, for example, and we’ve seen an increase in the HIV epidemic…There is a large fear that we’ll see exactly the same across most of Asia and the Pacific,” Mr Wilson said.

He says it’s going to be up to the governments in the Asia Pacific region to takeover more ownership and leadership.

“There’s only a few countries that are really sustaining their own response themselves…They are China, Thailand and Malaysia, but effectively every other country in the region is highly reliant on international aid,” he said. –Iskhandar Razak for Pacific Beat