Indonesia will host the 9th International Congress on the Anti Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS) in Asia and the Pacific region (ICAAP) which will become the biggest in the region, an organizing committee official said here on Wednesday.

"As of now we have received attendant applications filed in by 5,700 people from 65 countries and more than 2,700 articles to be read out during the congress," Zubairi Djoerban, a local organizing committee of the congress official told a press conference here.

The Indonesian AIDS society chairman said that the 9th congress will be themed "Empowering People, Strengthening Network," aimed at empowering people across the region to mobilize a holistic and more affective response to the cross border disease.

Zubairi said that the biennial congress, scheduled to be opened by Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, will be held from August 3 to 13 in Bali.

The congress will release programs and discuss the scientific inventions and policy developments in the global response to HIV/AIDS, he added. The congress, he said, is organized by the AIDS Society of Asia and the Pacific (ASAP), he said.

Zubairi explained that the appointment on Indonesia to host the congress is based on the fact that Indonesia was one of the first Asian countries to develop a far-sighted national policy that provided legal immunity for people living with HIV (PLHIV) to seek medication officially in appointed institutions.

According to the data issued by the Independent Commission on AIDS in Asia in 2008, AIDS remains the most likely cause of death and loss of work among people aged 1544.

The data also say that the number of PLHIV in Asia was estimated at 5 million by 2007.

To reach the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) on HIV and AIDS, member countries are required to halt and reverse the spread of the epidemic by 2015.

Source:Xinhua