NEW DELHI: Advance of HIV/AIDS is markedly reducing economic and employment growth in countries hit hardest by the epidemic, jeopardising their efforts to reduce poverty, create new jobs — especially for youth — and fight child labour, according to a report by the International Labour Office (of the International Labour Organisation) on the eve of World AIDS Day.

The report, titled ``HIV/AIDS and work: global estimates, impact on children and youth, and response 2006,'' said that 36.3 million people of working age were now living with HIV/AIDS with a vast majority in the sub-Saharan Africa. The epidemic was also causing a reduction in employment growth resulting in a million fewer jobs a year in the worst-hit countries, compared to what might have been in the absence of the epidemic.

The report concludes that among those of working age — in addition to the 24.6 million labour force participants living with the HIV/AIDS infection — 11.7 million more who are engaged in some form of productive activity, often women in the home, are now living with the virus.

Forty-three countries heavily affected by the disease lost on an average 0.5 per cent in their rate of economic growth every year between 1992 and 2004 due to the epidemic, and as a result forefeited 0.3 per cent in employment growth.

The impact of the epidemic was particularly severe for children and youth whose lives, hopes and future are blighted directly or indirectly by HIV/AIDS. Globally, nearly 2.3 million children live with AIDS and there are 15 million AIDS orphans.

Without increased access to anti-retroviral therapy treatment, cumulative mortality losses to the global labour force are expected to increase as a result of the impact of the HIV epidemic, from 28 million estimated for 2005 to 45 million projected by 2010, over 64 million projected for 2015, and nearly 86 million anticipated by 2020.

The World Health Organisation (WHO) has urged the South-East Asian countries to scale up HIV/AIDS prevention and treatment services to avert an all-cut epidemic.

New data published by UNAIDS/WHO shows that one-fifth of the 39.5 million HIV-infected people in the world live in this region. Of the infected people, over 2 million are women and 120,000 are children.

A total of 9,60,000 people were infected in Asia last year and approximately 6,30,000 died from AIDS-related illnesses in 2006. Importantly, the majority of the 7.8 million infected people still do not know their HIV status and only 10-20 per cent access life-saving prevention, treatment and care service. Moreover, less than 2 per cent of pregnant women, who need treatment to prevent the mother-to-child HIV transmission, receive the required drugs.

The WHO has stressed on the need to increase the reach and quality of voluntary testing and counselling services, particularly for the high-risk groups as well as scaling up prevention, treatment and care interventions.

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