AIDS - The ‘silent but lethal tsunami’ of Asia
The AIDS virus has been silently threatening all of Asia. Its spread is rapid and deadly. One in four new infections occur in Asia every day. 1,500 persons effected with the virus die here every day. What is extremely alarming is that the disease has already spread into several provinces of the world’s most populated country – China. India too is not far behind; it’s name and presently the top in the list of Asia’s affected countries.
The UN estimates that 8.2 million people are infected with the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) in Asia. And about 5.1 million of them are from India. The Chinese government in a report said that there are as many as 840,000 patients in China suffering from the infection. These figures are staggering when we look at them worldwide. Approximately 39 million people have HIV/AIDS, including 25 million in sub-Saharan Africa.
In Asia, the AIDS epidemic is still mainly affecting the vulnerable groups such as injecting drug users, the sex workers and the homosexuals. However, it is now slowly finding its way into the general population.
