Recognizing the impact of the AIDS epidemic on the nation, the Executive Yuan yesterday said it wanted to lower the annual increase of HIV infection from the 22 percent to zero by the end of 2006.
"As the rapid spread of AIDS has tremendous impact on the nation's economy and population, the government has the obligation to keep the prevalence rate of the disease at the lowest level possible," Cabinet Spokesman Chuang Suo-hang (莊碩漢) quoted Premier Yu Shyi-kun as saying yesterday.
Yu made the remarks during the weekly closed-door Cabinet affairs meeting after listening to a briefing presented by the Department of Health. The briefing dealt with the local and international AIDS epidemic and how the government should battle the deadly disease.
According to the health department, Taiwan has averaged a 20-percent increase in HIV infections every year.
If no countermeasures are implemented to prevent the spread of the disease, the health department estimates that 15,000 people will be infected with HIV by 2011 and the government will have to spend more than NT$2.6 billion to treat the disease.
The first HIV patient in Taiwan was discovered in 1984. As of October this year, there have been a total of 4,217 Taiwanese infected with HIV. More than 800 people have died from AIDS.
As part of the government's efforts to combat the disease, the Cabinet-level Committee for the Promotion of AIDS Prevention was established in September last year.
The committee is chaired by Vice Premier Lin Hsin-i (林信義) and staffed by 12 ministers and five social leaders from the private sector.
The mission of the committee is to team up with the private sector to raise public awareness of the disease, encourage the public to care about HIV carriers and lower the prevalence rate of HIV infection.
The government has spent more than NT$107 million this year in prevention programs and has earmarked another NT$183 million for next year.
As the Dec. 1 World AIDS Day is approaching, a series of events have been scheduled for this month and next month.
According to a UN report, it is estimated that by the end of 2010 about 25 million babies worldwide will be born with HIV and that those countries with a high HIV-infection rate will suffer economic growth that is 25 percent less than originally predicted.
The report also found that between 1981 and 2001 more than 64.8 million people around the globe were infected with HIV.
As of last year, the AIDS epidemic had claimed 24.8 million lives, leaving 40 million people living with the HIV virus.
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