The emerging epidemic of HIV infection and AIDS in Asia and the Pacific
Kaldor, J.M.; Sittitrai, W.; John, T.J.; Kitamura, T.
Aids 8(Suppl 2): S1-S2
1994
ISSN/ISBN: 0269-9370 PMID: 7857551 Document Number: 290927
The countries of Asia in 1988 did not seem to be at great risk of sharing in the virtually global HIV/AIDS epidemic. HIV transmission was not occurring on a large scale in those countries and no dominant pattern of transmission had been established. That situation has, however, dramatically changed such that Asia and the Pacific are now fully part and parcel of the global pandemic. Indeed, Australia and New Zealand were among the first developed countries to record high rates of AIDS incidence during the early 1980s, while Thailand had documented alarming increases in HIV seroprevalence by 1988. In New Zealand and Australia, sex between men was quickly established as the dominant route of transmission, with IV drug use remaining a rare mode. IV drug use appears to have been the major transmission route in southern China, northern Malaysia, and northern Myanmar, while heterosexual transmission dominates in the majority of Asian and Pacific countries. Tuberculosis is the major opportunistic infection in the countries of Asia and a fungal pathogen of increasing importance in the region, Penicillium marneffei, had not been associated with HIV infection until the virus reached Asia. Some governments have been slow to respond, yet others including Australia and Thailand have implemented comprehensive national strategies. Many community level prevention activities are ongoing. Despite these activities and some important successes, HIV infection and its related social, economic, and political consequences continue to threaten Asia and the Pacific.