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A Filipina medical technologist at the social hygiene clinic of Manila Health Department extracts blood for HIV screening test November 28, 2008 from a male client said he had sexual contact with a commercial sex worker. Cases of HIV/AIDS could hit 10 million in Asia by 2010 -- more than doubling the current estimate -- unless nations take stronger steps to control the disease, experts warned during a briefing by experts from Asian Development Bank and Joint United Nations Programme on AIDS. (AFP/Getty Images)

The large number of men in Asia who seek commercial sex trade has become an important medium for the spread of HIV/Aids in the Asia Pacific region, UN health officials warned here Friday.

At the launching ceremony of a on-line database on HIV/Aids on Friday, Anupama Rao Singh, head of Unicef East Asia-Pacific Regional office said there are estimated 75 million Asian men "regularly" buying sex from about 10 million Asian females who sell it, according to studies of the Commission of Aids in Asia.

"We cannot overlook the threat of HIV's continued transmission through the sex trade," Singh said. "Because the implications on HIV trend among women and children are grave."

She said that throughout Asia, an alarmingly large number of wives were found infected by their husbands or sex partners who engaged in unprotected sex trade. And the virus can still be passed on to the next generation when the wives become pregnant.

Experts of the United Nations Children's Fund (Unicef), the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/Aids (UNAIDS), World Health Organisation (WHO), and the Asian Development Bank (ADB) gathered Friday in the Philippine capital of Manila to unveil the on-line database that will facilitate researchers, policy-makers and civil groups who would need to do Aids/HIV research in the region.

The site (www.aidsdatahub.org) contains consistently updated information on core HIV/Aids indicators and national response in 24 countries and regions in east, southeast, and south Asia.

At the ceremony, Amala Reddy, regional programme advisor of UNAIDS Asia and the Pacific, warned that because the "relatively large sise" of men who buy sex, they have become a "powerful factor" in the spread of HIV/Aids in the region.

She said that in Asia, about 50 million women who have no other behavior other than being the wives of men who are on this trend (buying sex) unfortunately risk being contracted with HIV/Aids.

According to data revealed by Unicef, Asian women, categorised as low-risk group, now represent less than 25% of all HIV infections but the proportion could have shoot up to 30% by2015, mostly infected through their husbands and sex partners.

Quoting UNAIDS report, Reddy said currently there are 5 million people in Asia living with HIV/Aids with around 400,000 people being newly infected every year.

She said the number is likely to soar to 500,000 by 2010 when the accumulated number of HIV infection cases in Asia rise up to 10 million.

Reddy said, however, UNAIDS experts don't expect the infection%age of population in Asia will be as high as the case of Africa, for most infection in Asia are concentrated in high risk groups such as sex workers, intravenous drug users, men who have sex with men.

In Asia, there are around 20 million intravenous drug users and men who had sex with men, according to the report of Commission of Aids in Asia, published earlier this year.

Massimo Ghidinelli, WHO regional advisor on HIV/Aids, said besides men who buy sex, men who have sex with men (MSM) without using condom is another high-risk group that needs particular attention in the region.

He said WHO even could not get a "fully accurate picture" on the exact magnitude of the contribution of MSM to Aids spread because of the sensitivity of the issue and neglects of the governments.

"It is a new phenomenon and we have insufficient understandings and studies." Ghidinelli said. "The problem may be much greater than what we have believed."

But UN health officials said the use of condom has been proved an effective way to stem the virus spread.

"There should be mass awareness campaigns, aggressive promotion of condom usage. The experience in Thailand and Cambodia proves it works," Reddy said.

"We know the ways. It is only that political leaders have to have the political will to do the right things," she added.