ISLAMABAD, Jan 11: Pakistan is a low prevalent but high risk country in South Asia regarding HIV/AIDS and comes after India with 78,000 - including 16,000 women and 2,200 children- estimated cases of people living with the syndrome.

This statistic was mentioned in a report, 'Time to act: HIV/AIDS in Asia', released here on Sunday by ActionAid Pakistan. According to the study, about 20 per cent of the reported cases in the country are due to infected blood while most of the vulnerable groups and risk factors are intravenous drug users, casual sex and commercial sex workers.

The report says that Pakistan is behind Nepal in health expenditure and human development ranking. The HIV/AIDS that largely targets the poor thrives under conditions of conflict, displacement, sex racketing and trafficking and weak health and social safety systems.

Launching the report, the ActionAid country director Dr Fouzia Saeed criticized drugs companies for minting huge profits from essentials medicines and depriving the poor of access to these drugs.

Referring to the Trade Related Intellectual Property Rights (Trips) agreement of the World Trade Organization (WTO), she called for placing patents of HIV/AIDS drugs in the public domain instead of MNCs and relaxing international trade laws to make drugs available and affordable to the poor.

The report urges the need for recognition of health as a right on the pattern of rebuilding opportunities in East Timor and Afghanistan. Coordinated efforts by various players and synergies in activities could produce better results in combating the epidemic.

The report acknowledges proactive role of media saying it could educate people about their rights and responsibilities and take governments and businesses to task with a rights based approach.

The report says time is running out as Asia and Pacific region have an estimated 7.2 million people living with the virus, with almost one million people acquired HIV in 2002. It is time to act to meet this challenge to humanity.

With the exception of Cambodia, Myanmar and Thailand, national HIV prevalence levels remain comparatively low in most countries of Asia.

In China and India alone, at least five million people are believed to be infected with HIV and epidemiologists forecast a rapid escalation.

The report focuses on South Asia, Central Asia, East Asia and South East Asia and gives data on these sub-regions of Asia and says the organization sees HIV/AIDS from a development perspective and dovetails it with family planning/mother and child health programmes, savings and credit schemes, primary health care and health education initiatives.

South Asia is home to about half of the world's poor people living on less than one dollar a day. Infectious diseases such as malaria, tuberculosis (TB) and respiratory illnesses have been a major cause of death and disability.

Resurgence of TB and the AIDS-TB nexus pose a major threat. HIV/AIDS has spread rapidly to over 4.2 million people since 1990s to 2001. Now there are 4.58 million people are living with HIV in India alone.