KADAZANDUSUN YOUTHS: BE WARNED OF AIDS!

KADAZANDUSUN YOUTHS:

BE WARNED OF AIDS!

Posted By

Allan Dumbong

UNESCAP Warns of HIV/AIDS Danger to Asia-Pacific YouthThe UNESCAP (United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and thePacific) is urgently calling on Asia-Pacific governments to target young people in the fight against HIV/AIDS. ''Young people are the hardest hit, half of all new infections have occurred among youth,'' warns the report. It says approximately 60 per centof new HIV infections in Thailand and Vietnam each year are among young people. Poverty, gender discrimination and lack of access to information and health services have increased youth vulnerability to HIV, the UNESCAP report says. ''Focusing HIV prevention on youth offers the greatest hope for containing the spread of HIV in Asia and the Pacific.'' The UNESCAP report says the biggest hurdle to providing effective HIV/AIDS prevention services is lack of cohesive policy. Governments must both coordinate their HIV prevention efforts across all departments, and they must actually implement policies. An Asia-Pacific regional initiative is critical to stopping the spread of HIV in the region. UNESCAP is urging major pharmaceutical producers to offer life-saving supplies at affordable prices. ''Major producers of drugs and supplies, such as China, India and Thailand, could consider the formation of a regional compact to make them available at prices which vulnerable groups, including youth, could afford,'' says the report.