The 8th International Congress on AIDS in Asia and the Pacific (ICAAP) opened Sunday in Sri Lankan capital Colombo with the attendance of 2,500 delegates from over 70 countries and regions mostly in Asia and the Pacific.
The five-day congress from Aug. 19 to Aug. 23, which brings together politicians, government officials, medical experts, academics, people living with HIV/AIDS, community workers and the media, is set to discuss a wide range of issues with regard to the epidemic that is confronting this region.
With seven regional congresses held so far from the inaugural summit in Canberra, Australia (1990) to Kobe, Japan (2005), the current congress is the first occasion where a high-level summit on this topic is taking place in a low HIV prevalence country.
Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapakse told the delegates at the opening ceremony that up to May 2007, a total of 872 Sri Lankans had been diagnosed as HIV positive, of whom 220 had developed AIDS and 162 had died.
Rajapakse attributed Sri Lanka's low prevalence on HIV to the high priority given by the government to improve the health of its people, such as free health care and free education.
However, "low prevalence does not necessarily mean no threat", he said, adding that Sri Lanka like other low prevalence countries must remain vigilant to the threat of HIV/AIDS.
The president said internationally it is important that speedy action is taken to ensure that the drugs combat HIV/AIDS are readily available to those in need.
He invited all heads of governments across the Asia and the Pacific to come together in "limiting and hopefully eliminating the spread of HIV/AIDS".
The 8th ICAAP is organized by the Sri Lankan government with the support of UNAIDS (Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS), ASAP (AIDS Society of Asia and Pacific), UN agencies based in Colombo, and a string of NGOs and community-based workers.
With the theme of "waves of change, waves of hope", organizers hope that the participants will re-dedicate themselves to arrest the further spread of HIV and AIDS and to care more effectively for the millions of men, women and children, presently affected with the virus.
At the last ICAAP meeting in Kobe in 2005, one of the critical points made was that the epidemic in Asia and the Pacific is spreading at a faster rate than in Africa, and that if this continues it is possible that the total number of HIV infected people in the region will reach around 20 million in 2010.
Source: Xinhua
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