Australia: $10 million to fight AIDS in India on World AIDS Day

[Guest guest]

Australian Government: AusAID Media Release

MINISTER FOR FOREIGN AFFAIRS ALEXANDER DOWNER

AA 05 111, 1 December 2005

$10 million to fight AIDS in India on World AIDS Day

I am pleased to announce on World AIDS Day that the Australian

Government will provide $10 million over five years to help fight

HIV/AIDS in India where an estimated five million people are

infected with the disease.

Australia will fund a new initiative with UNAIDS and the Government

of India to reduce the risk and impact of the virus in the north-

eastern states of Nagaland, Manipur, Mizoram and Meghalaya. While

building on the capacity of the State AIDS Control Societies, the

project will also develop innovations in HIV education, prevention

and care.

This new initiative will target the most vulnerable to infection in

the north-east; children, sex workers, drug users and their partners.

After South Africa, India has the highest number of HIV/AIDS-

infections of any country in the world, and is now home to around 60

per cent of the more than 8.2 million people living with HIV/AIDS in

the Asia-Pacific.

According to UNAIDS, if current trends continue, 40 per cent of all

new HIV infections globally will be in our region by 2010.

World AIDS Day is held on 1 December every year to raise awareness

about the disease and is an appropriate time to consider the impact

of HIV/AIDS in our region.

Australia, through the Government's international aid agency,

AusAID, has committed $600 million to reduce the spread of the

disease in the Asia Pacific in the decade to 2010.

Media contact:

Kenny (Minister's Office) 0419 206 890

AusAID (Public Affairs) 0417 680 590