"Lao PDR (People's Democratic Republic) is at a crucial stage where, if we act firmly, we can ensure this country stays at low risk," Olivia Yambi, UNICEF's representative to the communist nation said in a statement received Tuesday.

"The United Nations system is firmly committed to supporting the government's national policy of HIV prevention and care."

Her comments were echoed by Kathleen Cravero, deputy executive director of UNAIDS, who has been in the country to boost awareness and ask officials for greater efforts in dealing with the issue.

She says the key to success is preventing infection among women and girls.

"Around the world, there are disproportionate numbers of women contracting HIV, particularly between the ages of 15 and 25. We need to make sure that girls and women in Lao PDR do not face the same fate," Cravero said.

"Women are often at greater risk of contracting HIV/AIDS because they are less empowered, less educated about ways to protect themselves, and often economically disadvantaged. They are sometimes driven into high-risk behaviour by desperation for money."

Cravero highlighted the problem of migrant workers returning to Laos from neighbouring Thailand and then infecting their partners with the disease.

"More and more in Lao PDR, as in much of Asia, a typical AIDS patient is less likely to be a service woman than a migrant worker returning from Thailand.

"Many of these go on to infect their partners, which of course puts wives at a very high risk," she said, pointing to the fact that Savannakhet, where much of the population regularly travels illegally to Thailand for work, has the highest rates of HIV infection in the country.

Although UN experts say the infection rate in Laos is rising, it has one of the lowest rates of infection in the region, with just over 1,100 people known to be HIV positive.

However, they say that the rapid increase in the movement of people internally and across borders has made the country much more vulnerable to an HIV/AIDS epidemic.

TERRA.WIRE