India’s prime minister vowed on Thursday to step up government efforts to fight HIV/AIDS as top media firms pledged to start a campaign against the disease in the country with the world’s second-highest number of infections.

The deadly disease was not just a public health issue but a serious socioeconomic and development concern and could hurt growth if not checked, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said.

“I assure you, our government is committed to substantially strengthening the national AIDS control efforts,” Singh told a conference of media leaders.

India has more than 5.1 million HIV-infected people, second to South Africa.

Over the years, HIV/AIDS has moved beyond traditionally high-risk groups such as homosexuals, sex workers and drug users to the general population due to a lack of awareness.

To combat public ignorance and educate people in the world’s largest democracy, 25 top media firms said they would devote time and space on TV channels and in publications to HIV/AIDS campaigns.

“We, therefore, resolve personally, as well as on behalf of our companies, to use our communications expertise and vast resources to do our part to change the course of this epidemic,” the media leaders - top newspaper and magazine editors, heads of TV channels - pledged in a statement.

Thursday’s conference was organised as part of a U.N. media initiative launched last year.

Hollywood actor Richard Gere, whose Heroes Project is associated with the campaign in India, said the commitment by Indian media firms was the biggest in the world.

“I think they are aware of ... how there is a window of opportunity right now if everyone gets serious you can escape what has happened so tragically in Africa,” Gere told reporters.

The disease has reached epidemic proportions in Africa and has killed more than 20 million people across the continent over the past two decades.

More than 25 million people, or 60 percent of the global total, are infected by the virus in sub-Saharan Africa.