Asian states exposed to AIDS nightmare

Thai children pose for the camera while playing around an AIDS sign at the main entrance of the Buddhist Prabat Namphu Temple in Bangkok's northeastern Lopburi province yesterday on the eve of the World AIDS Day. According to United Nations figures, from a population of 63 million at least 289,000 Thai children have lost one or both parents to AIDS and 21,000 children are infected. PHOTO: AFP

In a region of diverse religious beliefs with particular difficulties confronting intimate realities of sexual behaviour and drug use, even some of the most conservative societies are holding a major series of events to mark World AIDS Day on Monday.

Extra urgency has been added to this year's campaigns and candlelit vigils for the dead because of gloomy predictions from health organisations that HIV infections in Asia and the Pacific are set to rise sharply from current low levels.

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Of the estimated 40 million people worldwide with HIV or AIDS, about 7.4 million live in Asia and the Pacific, according to the World Health Organisation (WHO).

Ranging from coy displays of condoms in China to a radio talk show featuring a "buxom sex symbol star" in Japan, Monday's message attempts to tackle sexual issues, including in Asia's pervasive sex industry with its often low level of health awareness among workers.

Some of the most active campaigning will be in Japan where AIDS, like in many other Asian countries, was once considered a "foreign disease".

Ai Iijima, 30, an outspoken former porn star whose book about the country's sex industry has been a bestseller, will speak at a government-sponsored event at a train station in Shinjuku, the bustling entertainment district of Tokyo, where 15,000 condoms will be handed out.

A charity concert -- Act Against AIDS 2003 -- at a 2,000-seater stadium in Tokyo and 30-second messages at hundreds of cinemas across the country will drive home the safe-sex message.