Manila - The World Health Organization (WHO) warned Tuesday that human rights violations, compounded by limited or no access to health services, could significantly contribute to the spread of HIV/AIDS in Asia. The WHO's regional office in Manila urged countries to take drastic measures to protect the human rights of high-risk groups to ensure they have access to information and services needed for their protection, care and treatment.
"Violations against human rights fuel the spread of HIV and put marginalized groups, such as injecting drug users, sex workers and men who have sex with men, at a higher risk of infection," the office said in a statement marking World AIDS Day.
"These population groups are more vulnerable to contracting HIV because they are often unable to realize their full civil, political, economic, social and cultural rights," it added. "They also lack access to information and education and to the services necessary to ensure prevention and care and treatment of infection."
Shing Young-soo, WHO regional director for the Western Pacific, noted that populations with high-risk behaviours were the main drivers of the HIV/AIDS epidemic in the region.
He called for renewed and more targeted prevention interventions as well as further expansion of treatment services to fight the spread of the disease.
"For majority of countries in the region, comprehensive interventions will need to target populations with high-risk behaviours," he said.
The WHO noted that while access to HIV/AIDS services was expanding in some countries, "most-at-risk population groups continue to face technical, legal and socio-cultural barriers to accessing those services."
Globally, there are an estimated 33.4 million people living with HIV. The Western Pacific Region account for 1.4 million infections at the end of 2008.
There were about 136,000 new infections in the region in 2008, a slight decline compared to earlier years, the WHO said. It raised concern over the growing number of infections among children, with the total reaching 5,700 in 2008.
