The global fight against AIDS is falling short and leaders need to get their heads out of the sand as women increasingly bear the brunt of the disease, U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan said on Sunday.

Opening an international AIDS conference, Annan made a passionate plea for the education of girls as a vital means of protecting them from the epidemic in a world where more and more women are catching it from philandering husbands.

He also pleaded for more money to halt the spread of a disease that has killed 20 million people, and to treat millions of sufferers.

Asian nations must intensify the fight against AIDS, which is spreading fast in a region home to 60 percent of the world’s population and where one in four new infections occurs, he said.

“We need leaders everywhere to demonstrate that speaking up about AIDS is a point of pride, not a source of shame,” he said. “There must be no more sticking heads in the sand, no more embarrassment, no more hiding behind the veil of apathy.”

Just before Annan spoke, 1,000 activists staged a sit-down protest outside the sprawling venue on the outskirts of Bangkok, waving placards saying “Access for All Denied” - a play on the meeting’s “Access for All” slogan.

Inside the teeming convention halls, students dressed in giant pink condom suits mingled with delegates. Outside, visitors were entertained by elephants playing soccer in a carpark.

One drug firm handed out press releases coiled in syringes.

NO CURE, NO VACCINE

Some 38 million people are living with AIDS and 14,000 more get infected every day - more than 40 percent of them aged 15-24.

A cure and vaccines for the disease, which emerged in 1981, are still years away.

“We are not on track to begin reducing the scale and impact of the epidemic by 2005, as we had promised,” Annan said, referring to the World Health Organization’s plan to treat 3 million people by the end of 2005.

WHO officials say they failed to meet their initial six-month target, but are confident of catching up, although many barriers have to be overcome.

Annan said health systems and training of medical workers needed to be expanded to support both treatment and prevention.

He was concerned in particular about women, who account for nearly half of all adult infections in a world where many live in ignorance and are usually controlled by men.

“Over the past few years, we have seen a terrifying pattern emerge: all over the world, women are increasingly bearing the brunt of the epidemic,” Annan said.

“What is needed is real, positive change that will give more power and confidence to women and girls,” he said. “In other words, what is needed is the education of girls.”

Men had to change their attitudes, “such as the belief that men who don’t show their wives ‘who’s the boss at home’ are not real men; or that coming into manhood means having your sexual initiation with a sex worker when you are 13 years old.”

The Bangkok meeting aims to boost access to lifesaving drugs that can prolong the lives of AIDS sufferers.

Despite a dramatic fall in drug prices, mainly due to pressure on Western drug firms, only 440,000 of the six million AIDS patients in need in the poorer countries get treatment.

The issue of access to generic antiretroviral drugs - which can cost as little as $140 per patient a year in poor nations against $470 for branded products, according to charity ActionAid - has overshadowed the runup to the biennial meeting.

So have accusations of complacency in countries, like host Thailand, which have had considerable success in curbing the spread of AIDS with vigorous action.

Thailand’s success, particularly in its notorious sex industry in the 1990s, has made it a model. But experts say infections are on the rise among youths and needle drug users, and they blame the government for cutting spending on AIDS awareness programs and waging a bloody “war on drugs” that has driven many away from treatment.