"We need to get India and China much more focussed on the problems of AIDS within their countries," US Department of Health and Human Services head Tommy Thompson told a conference on HIV/AIDS and communicable diseases in Asia.

The HIV/AIDS problem in Africa would be considered "minimal" compared with India and China if those countries allow the disease to spread, he warned.

In the wake of SARS and avian flu outbreaks, Thompson also said: "In today's inter-connected global economy, the spread of disease can shake business confidence and disrupt entire regional economics."

Thompson was speaking to the one-day conference, co-hosted by New York-based Asia Society, a non-profit forum for promoting ties between Asians and Americans, and the Japan Centre for International Exchange.

He said AIDS was attacking Asia at an alarming rate and that he was "particularly concerned about China."

Experts estimate more than a million Chinese are living with HIV, he said.

Though that figure represents only a small percentage of China's estimated population of 1.29 billion, the prevalence of HIV has been increasing by 20 to 30 percent every year, he said.

The number of Chinese orphans in the mainland could be much higher than the officially recognised 100,000, partly because more parents are dying from AIDS and leaving their children behind, he added.

"In a country with more than a billion people, even a small increase in the percentage of the population affected could strike down millions of our fellow men, women, and children," he said.

TERRA.WIRE