Improving access to cheap anti-HIV drugs is the best way to battle the global AIDS epidemic, but the window of opportunity is closing, AIDS experts said on Thursday.

Countries with emerging epidemics have to admit there is a problem and move fast, and the international community has to pitch in more to help, according to the report.

“We have the science, the technical capacity and the know-how, yet investments still have not begun to yield substantial and lasting impact on the AIDS epidemic,” Dr. Peter Piot, head of the United Nation’s UNAIDS agency, and colleagues note in the journal Science.

“To provide treatment to those who need it safely and effectively, we need to develop simplified drug treatments, based on fixed-dose combinations and copackaging,” they added.

Different groups, however, argue about the best way to fight the AIDS epidemic, with debates over whether it is proper and ethical to promote condom use, abstinence and needle exchange programs. Drug companies and governments continue to debate the proper use and licensing of cheap, generic versions of anti-HIV drugs.

“In 2002 alone, there were 1 million new infections in the Asia Pacific region,” the authors wrote.

President Bush this week said Vietnam would become the 15th country targeted for an intensive, $15 billion, five-year effort. This surprised some experts, who felt India was the natural next target.

“The risk of the epidemic’s spreading in India raises grave concerns,” the authors note in their commentary, published ahead of a global AIDS meeting in Bangkok next month.

“Already 10 percent of the world’s HIV-positive population lives in India - more than 4 million people.”

Brazil, with its extensive generic drug distribution program, sets a good example for how to fight the epidemic, the authors note.

“Brazil has the most advanced national HIV/AIDS treatment program in the developing world - it is estimated that between 1994 and 2002, almost 100,000 deaths have been averted (a 50 percent drop in death rates) through the introduction of” anti-HIV drug regimens.

SOURCE: Science, June 25, 2004.