'Window of opportunity' in Aids battle

Thailand has worked hard to combat Aids

Asia has a "window of opportunity" to prevent the spread of HIV/Aids on the scale which has devastated Africa, an expert has told an international conference in Thailand.

Dr Alvaro Bermejo of the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent societies said community-based organisations held the key to containing the disease.

There is a strategic window of opportunity in Asia and the Pacific

Dr Alvaro Bermejo

"HIV/Aids doesn't have to lead death," he said. "With care and treatment, [HIV-] positive people can live with HIV."

Dr Bermejo said almost half a million people have died in Asia this year out of an infected population of 7.1 million.

More than 2,000 health workers, campaigners and sufferers from the virus have gone to the northern Thai city of Chiang Mai, to attend the Fifth International Conference on Home and Community Care for people living with the disease.

Thai success story

The conference was originally held in Europe, but this year moved to Thailand in recognition of its success in tackling one of the earliest and most severe epidemics of Aids in Asia.

Needle sharing among drug addicts is responsible for much of the problem

In the early 1990s the Thai authorities turned to religious and other non-governmental groups for help in spreading the burden of care throughout the community.

The meeting comes at a time when the virus is making fresh inroads in Indonesia and northern Vietnam. The situation in Burma is thought to be far worse than the government there has so far acknowledged.

Dr Bermejo said programmes combining education, prevention, care and treatment, and a determined fight against discrimination and stigma could block the further spread of HIV/Aids.