HEALTH-JAPAN: New Figures Prompt Fears of AIDS Explosion

By Suvendrini Kakuchi Reprint | | Print |

Suvendrini Kakuchi

TOKYO, Feb 9 2005 (IPS) - Japan’s new figures for HIV/AIDS are a cause for alarm with health experts indicating that the actual number could be far greater, given that many Japanese who may be positive have not yet been tested.

Japan’s Health Ministry reported late last week that the number of those infected with the HIV/AIDS virus exceeded 1,000 for the first time in 2004, with a total of 1,114 new infections reported last year – compared to 640 people infected with the virus in 2003.

”The new figures can be blamed on the lack of government support for AIDS prevention programmes in Japan. Officials tend to think Japan does not have an HIV problem,” said Tsuneo Akaeda, a medical doctor who works in HIV/AIDS projects targeting Japanese youth.

”There is the belief that the Japanese are not at risk compared to people in other countries. This is indeed a dangerous thought,” Akaeda told IPS.

Grassroots organisations report it has long been an uphill struggle to convince bureaucrats to launch an active national AIDS prevention programme given their complacent attitude based on the perceived low infection rates in Japan.

Officially Japan has a total of 6,528 persons living with HIV, 3,258 of whom are full- blown AIDS patients.

But the estimates published by the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) indicate that as many as 12,000 people have been infected with the virus at the end of 2003, though the figure could be as high as 19,000.

But the figures for 2004 have shocked the government.

”The latest figures are very alarming and calls for immediate change in the complacent attitude in Japan,” Yoshiaki Sakurai, medical advisor at the Japanese Foundation for AIDS Prevention, the official government organisation dealing with the disease, told IPS.

He acknowledges the rise in the HIV infection rate among people in their twenties and thirties corresponding with full-blown AIDS patients in their forties and fifties.

”This is a sign of a serious situation brewing in Japan,” warned Sakurai.

”Full-blown AIDS usually appears after an HIV incubation period of ten years. The latest figures clearly shows this cycle and proves how people are not aware of the risks of being infected,” he said.

According to Sakurai, 80 percent of the transmission was through sexual contact.

There is now fear that Japan could now be facing a second wave of AIDS, with a lot of young people quite unaware that they can be exposed to the disease through sexual intercourse and many shying away from voluntary testing for the virus.

Akaeda hit out at the government for not providing user-friendly voluntary counseling and testing (VCT) centers for youth and employed people.

”The current system supports anonymous and free HIV testing at public health care centers but VCT schedules are available only twice a month and only in the mornings. This is not convenient for working Japanese,” he pointed out.

The medical doctor said people were also reluctant to go for voluntary testing out of fear that they could be stigmatised if tested positive for HIV.

”Many fear they would lose their jobs or even be shunned by their families if their positive status is known by others,” said Akaeda.

Yet another problem, according to activists, is the poor standard of sex education in Japanese schools.

”Despite earnest appeals by activists to the government for the young to have better sex education, we have to tread very carefully,” said Hideko Fujimori, head of Act Against AIDS, a small grassroots group that works on HIV/AIDS education among youth.

”Many conservative parents and older teachers argue that displaying condoms and other contraceptives in class could promote early sexual activity,” he said.

”But studies show sexual activity is prevalent even in junior high schools. We would be blind to ignore the vulnerability facing younger age groups,” Fujimori pointed out.

Recent studies indicate that Japanese girls now begin to menstruate at ages 10-12, at least two years earlier than their mothers. Of third-year high school students, 30 percent report they have experienced sex at least once, compared to two decades ago when sexual debut was most often at age 20.

”Anyone can become infected with HIV through sexual intercourse,” said Fujimori. ”But most people think it’s someone else’s problem.”

Meanwhile, Japan is also under pressure from activists to increase funding for the Global AIDS Fund under the auspices of the United Nations.

Sakurai said Japan has so far contributed five million U.S. dollars to the programme. In contrast, Tokyo has allocated 109 million U.S. dollars for its domestic HIV/AIDS campaign.

Akaeda said Japan must be seen as doing much more in the global fight against the pandemic.

”With more Japanese traveling to high-risk HIV/AIDS areas such as China and India, Japan must increase funding on a global context and change its policy of only focusing on the domestic front,” he said.

The issue of migration and HIV/AIDS will be a major focus in the July Asia-Pacific regional AIDS conference scheduled to be held in the port city of Kobe.

Activists are also calling for a control of Japan’s burgeoning sex industry where young women face a high risk of contracting HIV.

”The situation is just too dangerous to stand by and watch,” said Akaeda.