The Pacific Island countries have a unique opportunity to curb the spread of HIV/AIDS before it is too late. “Although HIV prevalence levels remain low, we must not underestimate the size of the challenges confronting the Pacific Islands region,” said Dr Peter Piot, Executive Director of the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS, in a video statement for the opening of the UNAIDS workshop, “Accelerating Action Against HIV/AIDS in the Pacific”, being held in Fiji from 22-26 March 2004.

The rate of HIV infection in the Mekong Region is rising faster among women than men. “Lack of attention to women’s rights is fuelling the HIV epidemic,” said Dr Kathleen Cravero, Deputy Executive Director of the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS), speaking at the Mekong Leaders’ Consultative Meeting on Women and AIDS on the occasion of International Women’s Day.

Women in Lao PDR are at an unacceptably high risk of contracting HIV and AIDS, according to a UN expert.

Across the world, between one-fifth and half of all girls and young women report that their first sexual encounter was forced. Too many women are unable to refuse sex or insist on a condom because they lack social and economic power, according to the film “Women Are”, being premiered in Geneva today to mark International Women’s Day.

Existing HIV prevention and protection efforts are failing to stem infections among women and girls because they do not take into account such issues as gender relations and sexual behaviour, according to the United Nations AIDS programme.

The U.S. government is to be commended for both seeking to enhance and coordinate its own AIDS efforts, and affirming that the AIDS fight can only be won through a concrete partnership between the international community, national governments, the private sector and people living with HIV/AIDS. UNAIDS stands ready to work with Randall L. Tobias, the U.S. Global AIDS Coordinator, and U.S. country teams to scale up the AIDS response on the ground in the 15 target countries worldwide.

“HIV/AIDS is a growing challenge for the entire continent of Europe, from Dublin to Moscow,” Kalman Mizsei, Regional Director for Europe and the CIS of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), warned European leaders gathered here to discuss a regional response to the epidemic.

AIDS is rapidly spreading in Eastern Europe and is on the rise again in Western Europe because integrated prevention and treatment programmes have not been sustained or do not exist. Countries in Eastern Europe, home to the fastest growing epidemic in the world, will soon be on Europe’s borders following the European Union’s enlargement on 1 May 2004. The Baltic States, which will soon be part of the EU, are also experiencing a rapid rise in HIV infections.

Grande Rio, a samba school in Rio de Janeiro, has composed a song entitled,

The escalating global struggle against AIDS cannot afford to neglect women, and special efforts will be needed to ensure it is not allowed to. To that end, UNAIDS has pulled together a high profile group of men and women -- the Global Coalition on Women and AIDS -- which gathers activists, government representatives, celebrities, and community workers who are committed to improving the lives of women and girls.