The World Health Organization has reported there are about 4.9 million people affected with AIDS in Asia-Pacific region, the second highest figure in the world, Indonesian Health Minister Siti Padilah Sufari said on Monday.

The minister made the statement read by Director General of Disease Control and Environmental Health of the ministry Prof. Dr. Tjandra Yoga Aditama at the ninth International Congress on AIDS/HIV in Asia and Pacific Region (ICAAP) in Bali.

The HIV cases are recorded at the group of highly risked people such as drug consumers, prostitutes and their consumers, according to the WHO.

More than 95 percent or 4.5 million cases of the HIV in the regions took places in nine countries, including Cambodia, China, India, Indonesia, Myanmar, Nepal, Papua New Guinea (PNG), Thailand and Vietnam, it said.

Majority of the sufferer has not got Antiretroviral Therapy (ART), the minister said in the statement.

The challenges faced by the governments were the development of the program for an early detection for imposing ART, Minister Supari said.

"The continuously provided financial support from both the governments and external is needed," she said.

The international congress on AIDS was opened by Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudyonoano on Aug. 9 and would end on Aug.13.

Ministers and ambassadors from the region are attending the congress to discuss the issues of mobilization, migration, gender and those cripple in a bid to enforce community and network in order to be able to appropriately respond on AIDS.

(Xinhua News Agency August 10, 2009)