MEDIA RELEASE
Released By:
Downer
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:
Chris Kenny (Minister's Office) 0419 206 890
AusAID (Public Affairs) 0417 680 590