AUSTRALIA'S commitment to fund programs to curb the spread of HIV and AIDS will increase to $1 billion by 2010, Foreign Affairs Minister Alexander Downer says.
FOREIGN Minister Alexander Downer with Michel Sidibe of UNAIDS. Australia will contribute $1 billion for research into curbing AIDS and HIV.
Mr Downer said the government had previously committed to spend $600 million on the programs across the Asia-Pacific region over the same period.
''I have decided we will increase that commitment by 2010 to a billion dollars - by a further $400 million dollars,'' Mr Downer said today.
Mr Downer was speaking during the Third Ministerial Meeting on HIV/AIDS in Sydney which drew together United Nations officials and ministers from countries including China, India, Indonesia, Papua New Guinea, the Philippines and Vietnam.
Delegates heard there were 8.3 million people living with the disease in the Asia-Pacific, totalling more than 20 per cent of all people infected globally.
But the region's infection rate was nowhere near levels seen in the African continent, and action was needed to ensure a similar infection ``explosion'' did not occur in the Asia-Pacific.
''In the Asia-Pacific region we don't have a problem on the scale of much of Africa, but we don't want to let it get to that stage,'' Mr Downer said.
''As a significant country in the region we are determined to play our part to address the problem ... we need to stop the situation deteriorating.''
Mr Downer said more than seven million condoms were distributed in Papua New Guinea during 2006 as a result of Australian funding, while 10,000 people also went through HIV/AIDS awareness programs and related training.
UNAIDS Director of the Department of Country and Regional Support, Michel Sidibe, said less than one per cent of the populations of the Asia-Pacific countries had HIV/AIDS.
But there were infection rate ''spikes'' of up to 1.3 per cent in Cambodia, Thailand, India and in Vietnam, he said, while in Papua New Guinea the infection rate was thought to be much higher than estimates of 1.8 per cent due to a lack of reporting.
The incidence of HIV/AIDS across Africa was at about 1.2 per cent of the population 15 years ago, and it has since ballooned alarmingly to more than 18 per cent and as much as 25 per cent in some countries.
''It is really important to make sure we don't have an explosion. We need to contain and we need to make sure we don't have the African experience,'' Mr Sidibe said.
AAP
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As the old saying goes,
"Tis an ill wind that blows nobody some good."
By putting up with Downer's self-righteous pontificating, at least PNG has got some money out of him. This is in an area where it will do some lasting good.
The problem with AIDS is that your immune system becomes compromised. (As we all already know) However, this makes Malaria even more deadly. As a result of AIDS, the body's immune system is not capable of fighting the disease.
If studies on Malaria are correct, so far all the studies and figures I have are for Africa, PNG is headed the same way as Africa in this disease. In Tanzania, the infection rate of Malaria per 1,000 is 1,350 per annum. THIS IS NOT A MISPRINT.
Regards......Ralph.
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"$1 billion for research in Australia" is a more appropriate title. Whilst the increase in the amount is good and we may benefit from the cure in future, the immediate effect of the announcement and especially the amount indicated has no impact on any body or country except Australia.
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