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  • Title: AIDS in Asia: facing the epidemic.
    Author: Mills S.
    Journal: Aidscaptions; 1994 Aug; 1(3):6-8. PubMed ID: 12345644.
    Abstract:
    Although HIV infection rates in certain Asian populations are among the highest in the world, relatively few cases of AIDS have been reported, and the attendant health and economic effects of an epidemic have yet to become apparent. The estimated average period of ten years during which HIV incubates before symptoms appear has allowed the virus to spread silently throughout many Asian countries. Although the virus seems to have spread later in Asia than anywhere else, the rapid rate of transmission in heavily populated South and southeast Asia has produced more HIV infections than anywhere else except in sub-Saharan Africa. The number of annual infections in Asia is even projected to surpass those in Africa in the mid- to late-1990s, while the annual number of new infections in Africa will soon start to decline. The most severe Asian epidemics are in Thailand, India, and Myanmar where HIV has progressed well beyond core groups. In Thailand, for example, more than 5000 cases of AIDS had been reported by the end of 1993 out of an estimated 600,000 HIV infections. Over the period 1989-93, the prevalence of HIV infection nationally increased from 3.5% to 26.1% among brothel-based prostitutes, from 0% to 7.7% among male clients of sexually transmitted disease (STD) clinics, 0% to 1.5% among women attending antenatal clinics, and 0.5% to 4.4% among Thai army conscripts, with rates highest among all surveyed groups in the northern, rural area of the country. The Thai government's commitment to 100% condom use in brothels seems to be working, however, given the 75% decline in new cases of STDs at government clinics over the period. The World Health Organization estimates that India may have more HIV-infected individuals than any other country in the world by the year 2000, while the epidemic continues to advance in Myanmar. Cross-border transmission is an important element of HIV transmission in the region.
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