The World Health Organisation (WHO) said today East Asia "urgently" needs to improve prevention programmes for HIV infections among sex workers and drug users.
Citing "high and increasing HIV infection" in some East Asian nations, the WHO said HIV infections could become a wider epidemic unless better controlled.
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"There is a real danger that the epidemic could become much more serious in future. It is urgent that we act to stop that from happening," the WHO said in a statement.
The WHO is holding an annual regional meeting for East Asia and Pacific this week in the western Japanese city of Kyoto.
The WHO said some 80 per cent of sex workers in Kunming, Yunnan Province in China have at least one sexually transmitted disease.
About 41 per cent of sex workers in Kuala Lumpur also had at least one sexually transmitted disease, it said.
The WHO called for promotion of condom use among sex workers. "Such a policy in Thailand and Cambodia has had a dramatic effect in bringing down HIV rates," the WHO said in the statement.
The WHO also called for the expansion of "harm reduction" programs among drug users, such as needle exchange, drug rehabilitation and education programs.
AFP