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News (Updated October 7,
2007)
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BEIJING, Sept. 29 (Xinhua) -- While the prevalence of AIDS in China remains low compared with the total population, the situation is very serious in several provinces affected by drug trafficking and illegal blood donation, senior Chinese AIDS control officials said on Saturday.
China had registered a total of 214,000 HIV cases by July 30 this year, said Hao Yang, deputy director of the AIDS prevention and control office of the State Council during an on-line interview at Xinhuanet.com.
"But still many HIV-positive people are not registered as having the disease," Hao said, "we rely on sample surveys to assess the general prevalence."
According to the last major survey in 2005 by the Ministry of Health, Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) and World Health Organization (WHO), the number of people suffering from HIV in China was estimated to be 650,000.
The survey is normally carried out every two years but this year's figure has yet to be released.
"On one hand the prevalence is still low compared with the total population of 1.3 billion, but on the other hand it is a large number," Hao said.
The situation in China is better than many African countries and some Asian neighbors, but in several provinces which are troubled by drug trafficking and illegal blood donation, the prevalence is high and the situation is very serious, he said.
When AIDS prevalence in common Chinese, for instance pregnant women, remains less than one percent, it can be regarded as low, said Wu Zhunyou, director of China's National Center for AIDS Prevention and Control (NCAIDS), in the same interview.
The people who have HIV in China are mainly from high-risk groups like drug users, sex workers, homosexuals and those having more than one sex partner, he said.
"But China must learn the lessons from countries like South Africa. We are trying to do things in advance," he said.
A number of government policies have been issued including free HIV tests to everyone and free treatment for AIDS patients in rural areas and low-income earners in cities without basic health insurance as well as free treatment and delivery service to HIV-positive expectant mothers.
Since 2005, disease control departments in China's counties, the lowest level, now report HIV-positive cases to the central government in Beijing directly through a computer network. They used to send the information by post.
"This has improved the accuracy of HIV/AIDS data," Hao said.
"We can't fully control the spread of AIDS in a short time. That's why more preventive efforts must be made," Wu said.
The government has also launched campaigns to increase public awareness about the diseases, for instance, education on safe sex among youth and setting up condom vending machines.
In the past two years in major cities, hotel rooms have been required to provide condoms.
China's broadcasting watchdog has banned all sexually suggestive advertising on radio and television.
Commercials featuring sexually suggestive language or behavior or featuring scantly dressed women were "detrimental to society," the State Administration of Radio, Film and Television (SARFT) said in a circular on Tuesday.
All stations are prohibited from broadcasting commercials and programs involving drugs, sex-related health supplements, drugs for sexually transmitted diseases, sex toys, as well as "vulgar" ads for breast enhancement and female underwear, according to the circular.
Commercials in which celebrities testify to the effects of products are also banned.
The SARFT also ordered an end to programs with names including sex-related drugs, products or medical institutions.
"Sexually suggestive ads and bad ads not only mislead consumers seriously and harm public health, but are socially corrupting and morally depraving, and directly discredit the radio and TV industry," the circular said.
In July this year, the SARFT released a notice to stop ads with inappropriate content or sex implications from appearing on TV screens.
A total of 1,466 ads involving two billion yuan (US$267 million) have been removed since August, statistics from the SARFT showed.
The administration warned stations that failed to monitor the quality of commercials and programs would face severe penalties.
Since September 5, China's broadcasting watchdog has punished ten radio stations for talk shows involving sexual topics.
Sunday October 7, 06:34 PM
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PHNOM PENH (AFP) - In the fading daylight they come out by their dozens -- young men in small groups or alone, cruising Phnom Penh's parks for sex, not with female prostitutes but with each other.
"Having sex with men is just something I like to do, it's relaxing," says a pub manager who gave his name as Pov as he sat among drinkers, all men, at his bar a few blocks off of the capital's busy riverfront.
In Cambodia, as elsewhere in the region, men having sex with men is nothing new.
But Pov's world, like that of many Cambodian men who are known as "MSM," is defined by secrecy and, in some cases, self-delusion and denial.
MSM -- men who have sex with men but who may not consider themselves to be homosexual or bisexual -- account for four percent of Cambodian men, according to experts, and represent a ticking HIV/AIDS timebomb.
Pov admits that his wife in rural Cambodia, whom he sees a couple of times a week, has no idea about his trysts with two or more male partners a month.
But he says he does not consider himself to be homosexual, or even bisexual, despite his predilection for sex with men.
Health workers say this growing and largely unseen trend towards risky sex threatens to seriously undermine progress in tackling one of Asia's worst HIV/AIDS epidemics.
Aggressive condom and sex education campaigns largely targetting Cambodia's sex industry effectively halted a spiralling HIV infection rate that in 1997 peaked at 3.7 percent of the country's approsimately 11.5 million people, making Cambodia the Asia-Pacific region's worst-affected country.
Cambodia's overall HIV prevalence has since dropped to 0.9 percent.
But health officials say they are failing to reach MSM, who have become the most vulnerable to infection.
"There is a very serious concentrated epidemic among MSM," says Tony Lisle, Cambodia's UNAIDS country coordinator.
Noting that MSM make up roughly four percent of all men in the country, he adds: "The hidden MSM population is significant and if we don't avert new infections the MSM epidemic could contribute significantly to the overall (HIV) prevalence rate."
Prevalence among men engaging in gay sex is 8.7 percent, nearly 10 times the norm, while incidences of other sexually-transmitted diseases are rapidly rising, indicating that fewer MSM are using condoms.
"All the messages are around heterosexual behaviour, particularly brothel-based sex work. An enormous amount of work needs to be done," said Lisle.
One of the biggest tasks is challenging Cambodia's conservative social norms that force many men to quietly seek sex with other men -- very few of whom are prostitutes -- while carrying on with lives that include marriage and family.
"There is a lot of stigma and discrimination. Culturally, economically and socially, there are all of these reasons that work against talking about sexual behaviour," said Lisle.
"In the meantime there are people seeking sex in a whole range of situations. They would never identify themselves and that makes prevention very difficult," he said.
While a barrage of public service campaigns have raised overall awareness of the causes of HIV/AIDS transmission, a shocking level of ignorance is also fueling this growing crisis among MSM, advocates say.
"MSM are at a higher risk of becoming infected with HIV because they usually don't understand how it is transmitted," says Sum Thy of the non-governmental organisation Family Health International (FHI), which has surveyed thousands of men on their sex habits.
"They think HIV only occurs among men and women who have sex and don't use condoms," he explains, but adds that the situation is slowly turning around.
At least one clinic deals almost exclusively with MSM, with the numbers seeking its services rising from a handful in 2003 to more than 200 a month last year.
Another positive sign, according to UNAIDS' Lisle, is the establishment of a national MSM working group that is trying to coordinate outreach programmes in a bid to head off new HIV infections.
The creation of the working group is a "very healthy sign that Cambodia is really starting to move to address the MSM epidemic," Lisle says. "But even if the government is providing space for this, at the same time you have to move society around.
HARARE, 4 October 2007 (IRIN) - Rev Maxwell Kapachawo is the only known pastor in Zimbabwe who publicly admits to being HIV-positive; he is also encouraging any of his peers infected and affected by the disease to speak openly about HIV/AIDS from the pulpit.
Churches in Zimbabwe tend to approach HIV/AIDS as a moral issue, Kapachawo told IRIN, and treat those infected as immoral, but the disease afflicting one in five Zimbabweans between the ages of 15 and 49 should actually be addressed as a medical matter.The irony was that while many of the country's faith-based organisations were involved in programmes for HIV/AIDS orphans, the pandemic itself was a taboo subject in church corridors.
"Our mission as religious leaders living with or affected by the pandemic is to break the silence and live positively, end self-stigma, denial and shame, while at the same time being forces of change in our congregations and communities," he said.
Kapachawo is the national coordinator of the Zimbabwe Network of Religious Leaders Living with or Personally Affected by HIV/AIDS (ZINERELA), which supports religious leaders living with HIV/AIDS or who have lost loved ones to it.
In a bid to combat stigmatisation among religious leaders, he uses radio and television to spread his message. "Let us make churches channels of hope, acceptance and love. I am proud to be doing my part," he says in one commercial.
"Religious institutions are very powerful because in Zimbabwe, for example, the majority of the population belongs to faith-based organisations, and these could be used as vehicles for spreading the message in the fight against HIV/AIDS," Kapachawo told IRIN. "Unfortunately, in Zimbabwe, the moment anybody talks about HIV/AIDS, questions of infidelity, promiscuity and sexuality are raised."
Rejected by the church
Kapachawo tested positive for HIV/AIDS in 2004, and experienced at first hand the attitude of the church towards the disease, and the presumption in religious circles that the disease is a consequence of immorality.
Before he tested positive for the virus, the bishop of the church suspected that Kapachawo was suffering from the effects of HIV/AIDS, removed him from his congregation and sent him home to live with his parents.
"For me, that was like a death sentence, because as my spiritual father I expected my bishop to be supportive of me during my time of need. He never visited me after that," he told IRIN.
For three years Kapachawo battled opportunistic illnesses, such as fungal infections, before deciding to attend a workshop on HIV/AIDS. "I was surprised to see people who looked strong and healthy, who said they were living positively with the virus. I vowed to go for testing and decided to go public in order to help fight stigmatisation in religious institutions."
He said the effects of stigmatisation by the church were illustrated by the fact that of ZINERELA's 181 members, he was the only religious leader who had publicly declared his HIV status.
"As a support group, we do not demand that members disclose their HIV status, though from discussions generated during meetings we can tell which of our members are positive. The problems that we face among members on the issue of living openly and positively are questions on how religious leaders will react if we come out in the open about our HIV status."
Defeating stigmatisation
Stigmatisation among HIV-positive religious leaders in Zimbabwe was rife, he commented, although this was not always the case in other parts of the continent.
"ZINERELA is part of a regional network in Southern Africa and the whole African continent. We admire how our colleagues from Uganda and Kenya who are living with HIV/AIDS are loved by their church leaders and congregations. Some churches have programmes in place which support them with accessing ARVs [antiretroviral drugs]," he said.
The formation of a network of religious leaders living with or affected by the HIV/AIDS was the brainchild of Gideon Byamugisha, an Anglican priest in Uganda, believed to be the first religious leader in Africa to publicly declare his HIV-positive status. Byamugisha has been living with HIV/AIDS for 15 years.
Although Kapachawo said his organisation had received some funding from religious groupings, it was not sufficient to sustain outreach programmes for men and women of the cloth in remote parts of the country.
"So far, we have only managed to set up structures in four out of 10 provinces such as Masvingo, Mashonaland West, Mashonaland East and Manicaland. We do not have vehicles to visit colleagues and I have had to resort to public transport, which is unreliable," he said.
"The work of pastors is a calling which requires them to work 24 hours a day, while it is not financially rewarding and, as a result, our members cannot afford the high cost of ARVs."
Kapachawo said the ideal would be to supply ARVs to all ZINERELA members requiring the medication, but limited funding made this very difficult. "Currently, HIV-positive members are being linked to other organisations in the HIV/AIDS sector for assistance, in terms of accessing medical drugs."
QUATRE BORNES, Mauritius, Oct 4 (Reuters) - African Anglican archbishops ducked homosexuality, the issue dividing the worldwide Communion, on Thursday and instead drew attention to the poorest continent's problems.
Last month Nigerian Archbishop Peter Akinola, one of the Church's fiercest critics of gay rights, blasted bishops from the U.S. Episcopal Church for "ignoring" pleas to take a clear stand against consecrating gay clergy or blessing gay unions.
Chairing a meeting of African archbishops in Mauritius, Akinola was at pains to avoid the topic.
"I'm trying to avoid dragging us into unnecessary controversy when there are more profitable things to talk about," he told reporters on the sidelines of the meeting.
"This is Africa, and we would rather focus on those important things that affect us Africans."
The Council of Anglican Provinces of Africa said in a statement it was distressed by drought and floods, Zimbabwe's political oppression, the Darfur conflict, and HIV/AIDS.
The U.S. church has been divided within and estranged from parts of the 77-million-member global church since 2003, when it consecrated Gene Robinson of New Hampshire as the first openly gay bishop in more than four centuries of Anglicanism.
An international panel of Anglican clerics and laity issued a report on Wednesday saying the U.S. Episcopal Church had made some concessions at its New Orleans meeting last month to calm the dispute over their consecration of Robinson.
The Joint Standing Committee said the Episcopal Church had met demands from the Anglican Communion to pledge not to consecrate another gay bishop and not to approve blessings in church for same-sex couples.
But it added the Episcopal Church had to do more to accommodate conservatives who are increasingly breaking away and pledging loyalty to bishops outside of the United States.
"The Communion should move towards closure on these matters, at least for the time being," the report said.
By Helen ChernikoffWed Oct 3, 10:57 AM ET
In most respects, Michelle Chernikoff Anderson is a rabbi's dream congregant. She sings in the choir and takes classes at her synagogue.
But, like an increasing number of Jews in the United States, she has decided not to circumcise her son, rejecting the traditional notion that it is a Biblically prescribed sign of the Jewish relationship with God.
"I see circumcision as a blood ritual that I can let go of," said Anderson, who lives in Southern California.
Her position is in harmony with a wider decline in circumcision in the United States.
About 85 percent of all American boy babies were circumcised at its peak in 1965, according to a National Opinion Research Center survey.
By 2004, it had fallen to about 57 percent, reflecting the increased birth rate among Hispanics, who are less likely to circumcise their sons, data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention shows.
"Circumcision's out of the closet. It's not a taboo subject anymore. People are talking about it. Parents are talking about it," said Dr. Mark Reiss, a synagogue-goer in the San Francisco area and executive vice president of Doctors Opposing Circumcision.
Among those talking about it is a gaggle of young, male, Jewish commentators. This year alone, in books, online and in magazines, authors Neal Pollack, Sam Apple, Jonathan Safran Foer and Shalom Auslander have all fretted about doing to their sons what was done to them. The title of Auslander's memoir, scheduled for publication in October, is "Foreskin's Lament."
Circumcision is even before the courts. In November, the Oregon Supreme Court will rule on whether a convert to Judaism can force his 12-year-old son to undergo the procedure.
"INTACTIVIST"
Reiss, who calls himself an "intactivist," maintains a roster of 50 officiants who conduct nonsurgical alternatives to the bris, traditionally performed on the eighth day after a boy's birth. He says he fields as many as five queries weekly from conflicted parents.
At the Jewish Circumcision Resource Center in Boston, director Ron Goldman maintains a list of 400 names of Jews who refuse to circumcise their sons.
Reiss and Goldman question circumcision's purported health benefits, such as lower rates of penile cancer and the recent reports that it can halve men's risk of HIV infection.
"Circumcision has always been the panacea for the disease of the decade," Reiss said, noting that non-Jews first adopted it to reduce masturbation, thought to cause syphilis.
Also, they think any benefits are outweighed by the risks, which include shock from blood loss, antibiotic-resistant infections and even death.
Such incidents are extremely rare, said Dr. Jack Swanson of the American Academy of Pediatrics. Between two and six infant boys experience complications per thousand circumcisions, but those are usually minor bleeding or treatable infections.
Under a trained professional, the risk to the child is "infinitesimal," said Conservative Rabbi Joel Roth.
"Jews have given their lives for circumcision more than for any other (religious obligation) and that's why it has become so defining an act of membership," said Roth.
"SQUEAMISH"
Islam has no comparable movement against circumcision, said Batool Al-Toma of the New Muslims Project. Most converts undergo the procedure, although Islam waives the requirement, said University of Colorado religion professor Frederick Denny.
Michael Young, a convert to Islam, had his infant son circumcised but did not undergo the procedure himself. "I'm very squeamish and hate the thought of it," he said.
Judaism is divided on the matter of converts. Reform Judaism does not require it, Orthodox and Conservative movements do.
Circumcision's detractors also claim the procedure reduces sexual sensation and endurance.
"I haven't attempted foreskin restoration surgery, but I've thought about it," said Matthew Taylor, an active Bay Area Jew who resents his own circumcision and who preaches on the evils of the practice to Jewish friends .
But author Julius Lester, who became a Reform convert to Judaism in 1982 and underwent circumcision to feel Jewish, said the procedure also boosted his sex life.
"Circumcised there are far more subtle sensations, and staying power is much, much longer," he said. "From a sexual point of view, I wish I'd gotten circumcised many years earlier."
Anderson is torn between a desire to protect her son's privacy and what she thinks may be a religious duty to discuss her decision not to circumcise.
"Hey, it's my son's penis, it's not mine to discuss in the same way it's not mine to cut. But at the same time, I feel like maybe I have an obligation to share."
The writer, Helen Chernikoff, is not related to Michelle Chernikoff Anderson.
By Allan DowdWed Oct 3, 9:59 AM ET
The government granted another reprieve on Tuesday to North America's only sanctioned injection site for drug addicts, saying it wants more research before deciding its fate.
Vancouver's Insite facility had faced closure at the end of the year, but Health Minister Tony Clement notified the local health authority that the injection site can stay open until June 30, 2008.
The facility, which opened in 2003 as part of a research project in Vancouver's poor, drug-infested Downtown Eastside neighborhood, needs an exemption from Canada's drug laws to remain in operation.
Ottawa has been weighing Insite's long-term future, and the six-month extension will allow continued research on its impact on efforts to promote drug treatment programs and reduce crime, Clement said.
Addicts using drugs such as heroin and cocaine are given clean needles to inject with at the facility in a room supervised by a nurse. After shooting up, they go to a "chill-out room" before returning to the street.
Insite receives more than 600 addict visits daily.
Insite's supporters, including Vancouver police, say studies have already shown it has prevented overdose deaths and helped get addicts into treatment. They say it also has slowed the sharing of needles, which is how AIDS and other diseases are often spread.
Insite received a similar reprieve last year.
"This is the second time that the federal government has stalled on this decision, and said that more research is needed. But the fact is, Minister Clement is asking questions that have already been answered and calling for research that's already been done," said Richard Elliott, executive director of the Canadian AIDS/HIV Legal Network.
But Insite's critics, including Prime Minister Stephen Harper, have complained that the government should not be sanctioning illegal drug use. The U.S. government has complained that Insite is a weak link in Canada's anti-drug efforts.
Questions about Insite's fate had been fueled by the government's announcement last weekend that it was ready to unveil a new national drug strategy expected to emphasize a tougher stand on illegal drug use.
The Vancouver Coastal Health Authority, which oversees the facility, was pleased with the announcement and ready to supply federal officials with any additional information they need, spokeswoman Viviana Zanocco said.
Victoria, British Columbia, has said it also wants permission to establish a drug injection facility, but the federal government has ruled out setting up any new sites until the research in Vancouver is completed.
Wed Oct 3, 2007 8:29 AM ET
By Nopporn Wong-Anan
BANGKOK (Reuters Life!) - A Thai bank
is pitching into the battle against HIV/AIDS and handing out condoms to
customers too shy to get them at the shop.
Despite Bangkok's reputation as one of the world's sex industry centers, Thailand is a generally conservative country.
Kasikorn Bank launched the "Condoms for Confidence" campaign at 600 branches nationwide and said it would start giving out the sheaths, branded K-Condom and K-Excellence, later this month.
"HIV/AIDS is returning to Thailand since the government awareness campaign started 20 years ago has fizzled out," said a bank spokesman who declined to be identified.
"We want the teenagers to be aware of the problem."
Despite a tenfold plunge of overall new HIV/AIDS cases from 15 years ago, the health ministry has said it was concerned about the numbers of teenagers and homosexuals still being infected.
Disease Control Department chief Thawat Suntrajarn said embarrassment about buying condoms and ignorance in using them were the main causes of the new cases.
"Research papers from all sorts of agencies have a consensus that many condom users are embarrassed to buy condoms from counters," Thawat told Reuters.
"Women who buy condoms from convenience stores always get a strange look from people, so condom handouts are a good way to avoid such embarrassment."
New HIV/AIDS cases in Thailand, once praised by international health agencies for its aggressive campaign to tackle the epidemic, had fallen to 13,000 in 2006 from more than 100,000 a year in early 1990s, Thawat said.
But the worrying sign was that many of the new patients were teenagers and homosexual men, not heterosexual men in their 30s and prostitutes as in the past, he added.
A Health Ministry-commissioned survey last year showed 48 percent of 5,712 male high school students used condoms.
About 43 percent of 7,712 female high school students said their sex partners used condoms, it said.
Spurred by the findings, Thawat's department is running a television advertisement encouraging people to buy condoms despite criticism from conservatives who argue it encourages teenagers to be sexually active.
"Even those bank customers who don't need to use the condoms, they can pass them on to their families or friends," he said.
Mon Oct 1, 2007 5:32 PM ET
TORONTO (Reuters) - Three former Canadian health officials and a pharmaceutical
company were acquitted of criminal charges on Monday for their alleged roles in
a blood scandal in which thousands of Canadians contracted HIV and hepatitis C
from blood transfusions.
Roger Perrault, a former director of the Canadian Red Cross, and the others had each been accused of criminal negligence causing bodily harm and commission of a common nuisance after thousands of hemophilia patients were given tainted blood products in the 1980s and 1990s.
Tens of thousands of transfusion recipients in Canada contracted the HIV and the hepatitis C virus.
In her ruling, Ontario Superior Court Justice Mary Lou Benotto said there was no conduct on the part of the accused that showed wanton and reckless disregard.
"The allegations of criminal conduct on the part of these men and this corporation were not only unsupported by the evidence," they were disproved," she said in reading her ruling to a packed courthouse.
Also found not guilty were former Canadian health officials Donald Wark Boucher and John Furesz, along with New Jersey company Armour Pharmaceutical, and its former vice president, Michael Rodell. Armour supplied the blood-clotting agent H.T. Factorate.
Mon Oct 1, 2007 11:02 AM ET
JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) - Former South African President Nelson Mandela announced
on Monday a group of local and international musicians would perform at a
concert in Johannesburg to raise money for his 46664 AIDS charity.
The concert, which will coincide with World AIDS Day on December 1, is an offshoot of similar shows that have been held in South Africa, Spain and Norway, the Nobel laureate said in a press conference at his foundation in Johannesburg.
The names of the artists performing in this year's event were not released.
"Today, we are happy to announce that 46664 will stage a similar concert here in Johannesburg on the First of December on World AIDS Day," said Mandela, whose son died of the disease in 2005, in one of his rare public appearances.
His AIDS charity is named after the prison number assigned to him during the 27 years he spent in jail.
Profits for the event will help fund HIV/AIDS awareness and outreach programs throughout southern Africa, the epicenter of the worldwide AIDS epidemic.
About 1,000 South Africans die each day from AIDS and another 1,500 contract the virus. An estimated 12 percent of South Africa's 47 million people are infected.
More than 50,000 people are expected to attend the concert at Johannesburg's Ellis Park stadium, with ticket prices ranging from 120 rand ($17.50) to 450 rand ($65.40). A list of the performers will be released later this month.
Mon Oct 1, 2007 10:05 AM ET
By Paul Simao
JOHANNESBURG
(Reuters) - South Africans queued to learn about sex toys and pole-dancing this
weekend, at the first sex fair ever held in a country founded by conservative
Christians and still home to many sexual taboos.
The exhibition, modeled on a show running in Australia since 1996, would have been unthinkable 15 years ago when South Africa was still ruled by Afrikaners, the white descendants of the original, largely Puritan Dutch and French settlers.
During the apartheid era, customs officials not only confiscated pornography brought from abroad by travelers, but sometimes detained those trying to import it. Strip clubs did not exist and handcuffs, though abundant, were not fur-lined.
The end of white minority rule in 1994 and the establishment of a new constitution -- generally considered one of the most liberal in the world -- unleashed a torrent of hard-core porn. Sex shops and strip clubs blossomed.
Although authorities tolerate the lifestyle, it remains one that few South Africans openly discuss or admit to supporting.
Meanwhile, South Africa has one of the world's worst AIDS epidemics.
An estimated 12 percent of its 47 million people are infected with HIV, most of them black. Sex is the main channel of transmission in a culture where male dominance is rarely challenged and promiscuity often tolerated.
Each day about 1,000 people die from AIDS and another 1,500 contract the virus.
Amid the racy lingerie, pornographic DVDs and exotic sex toys, the Johannesburg "Sexpo SA" made room for a handful of health advocacy groups to set up stands, including the LoveLife Trust, the national HIV prevention program for young people.
Silas Howarth, the 28-year-old South African who organized the exhibition, said around 40,000 people paid the 89 rand ($13) admission to the fair. He said there were plans to hold similar events in coming months in Durban and Cape Town.
Fri Oct 5, 8:29 AM ET
AIDS-blighted Malawi wants to more than double the number of people receiving free anti-retroviral (ARV) drugs to 245,000 by 2010, Health Minister Marjorie Ngaunje said on Friday.
"With currently 115,000 people on ARVs, the government aims at increasing this number to 245,000 by the year 2010," Ngaunje told a conference of donors and health experts.
Though it is still a taboo subject in the conservative landlocked country, some 930,000 Malawians are living with HIV or AIDS where the prevalence rate is 14 percent, according to UNAIDS and official figures.
The conference, organised by international medical and humanitarian aid organisation Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF), is to discuss how to deal with acute shortages of health workers.
Representatives of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and the World Bank, the main sponsors of the country's economic reforms, are also attending the one-day meeting.
Saying HIV and AIDS were a major public health problem in the southern African nation, Ngaunje said: "approximately 170,000 Malawians are believed to be in urgent need of ARVs today."
She said the scale-up programme had been hit by "a persistent crisis over the past decade which is largely caused by acute shortage of professional health workers in the public health sector."
Ngaunje said the poor southern African country, with funding from the Global Fund against AIDS, malaria and tuberclosis, had recruited 5,000 health surveillance health assistants to increae access to treatment and to compensate for professional health workers.
Malawi, with a population of 12 million, has 150 doctors on the state payroll, according to a recent figure by the health ministry.