Comprehensive, up-to-date information on HIV/AIDS treatment, prevention, and policy from the University of California San Francisco

The Asian epidemic is largely stable. In all of Asia, an estimated 4.9 million [4.5 million-5.5 million] people were living with HIV in 2009, about the same as 5 years earlier. Most national HIV epidemics appear to have stabilized. No country in the region has a generalized epidemic. Thailand is the only country in this region in which the prevalence is close to 1%, and its epidemic appears to be stable overall. A resurgent epidemic in the late 1990s (when up to 60,000 people were becoming newly infected annually) has since receded. The adult HIV prevalence was 1.3% [0.8%-1.4%] in 2009, and the HIV incidence had slowed to 0.1%. In Cambodia, the adult HIV prevalence declined to 0.5% [0.4%-0.8%] in 2009, down from 1.2% [0.8%-1.6%] in 2001. But the HIV prevalence is increasing in such low-prevalence countries as Bangladesh, Pakistan (where drug injecting is the main mode of HIV transmission), and the Philippines.

There were 360,000 [300,000-430,000] people newly infected with HIV in 2009, 20% lower than the 450,000 [410,000-500,000] in 2001. Incidence fell by more than 25% in India, Nepal, and Thailand between 2001 and 2009. The epidemic remained stable in Malaysia and Sri Lanka during this time period. Incidence increased by 25% in Bangladesh and Philippines between 2001 and 2009 even as the countries continue to have relatively low epidemic levels.

Epidemic patterns vary between and within countries. The overall trends in this region hide important variation in the epidemics, both between and within countries. In most of them, the epidemics appear stable. In many countries in the region, national epidemics are concentrated in a relatively small number of provinces. HIV infection levels in Indonesia's Papua province are 15 times higher than the national average. Asia's epidemics remain concentrated largely among people who inject drugs, sex workers and their clients, and men who have sex with men. Incidence patterns can vary considerably in large countries such as India. About 90% of people newly infected with HIV in India are believed to have acquired it during unprotected sex, but the common use of contaminated injecting equipment by two or more people on the same occasion is the main mode of HIV transmission in the country's north-eastern states.