BANGKOK, June 30 (TNA) – Health officials from the 10 Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) countries on Wednesday met to discuss the region's HIV/AIDS epidemic, aiming to finalise the organisation's response.

Thai Public Health Ministry's deputy permanent secretary Siriwat Tiptaradol chaired the opening ceremony of the ASEAN Consultation on a Regional Framework on Greater Involvement and Empowerment of People Living with  HIV meeting in the Thai capital.

The meeting aimed to strengthen cooperation between ASEAN country members and networks of people living with HIV by exchanging experience and information from each country to plan and implement the regional body's response.

ASEAN health officials will apply the conclusion to advance involvement and empowerment of people living with HIV, and will develop and finalise a fourth regional HIV response plan covering 2011-2015, which is the most important objective of the meeting.

The meeting was attended by representatives from all ten ASEAN countries-- Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Lao PDR, Malaysia, Myanmar, Philippines, Singapore, Viet Nam and Thailand-- and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDs (UNAIDS).

The gathering followed the Vientiane Statement of Commitment on the Greater Involvement and Empowerment of People Living with HIV endorsed by senior ASEAN officials meeting on health development in July 2008.

Meanwhile, Jintana Sriwongsa, senior officer of the Health and Communicable Diseases Division at the ASEAN secretariat, said that some 1.6 million people in the region are HIV-infected.

This year, the number of living HIV patients in Thailand is estimated at some 500,000 persons, explained Ms Jintana, adding that the Thai public health ministry is a model agency with a policy for HIV-infected patients to receive antiviral medication from the government.

Starting in 2002 the policy aimed to promote and educate patients to use medicines continually to prevent and solve drug-resistant strains of HIV. It also expects to restructure the country’s medical and social services to pave the way for a full-scale National Health Security system to improve quality of life for the patients. (TNA)