AIDS in Asia

Asia is confronting a complex and devastating HIV/AIDS epidemic. Although HIV did not hit Asian countries until the late 1980s, by the late 1990s the epidemic was well established across the region. UNAIDS reports that in 2009, more than 360,000 Asians/Pacific Islanders were newly infected with HIV, bringing the total number living with HIV/AIDS in Asia and the Pacific to more than 4.9 million. In the same year, approximately 300,000 people died from AIDS-related illnesses in this region. The prevalence of HIV in some Asian countries remains relatively low, but with a regional population that is roughly 60 percent of the world’s total, even low prevalence translates into huge numbers infected.