Bangkok: AIDS threatens to career out of control in Myanmar with a health infrastructure woefully inadequate to cope with the epidemic, the United Nations said Thursday.

The military-ruled state is “one of the top three countries in Southeast Asia in terms of infection prevalence,” with up to 620,000 people aged 15 to 49 believed to be infected with HIV, said Eamonn Murphy, country coordinator for UNAIDS.

The figure, from UN and national data, is a near 50 percent increase on the estimated 420,000 cases two years ago, he said.

HIV prevalence in the population is at 2.0 percent, the UN said, driven by 20-30 percent infection rates of sex workers.

Nearly three-quarters of injecting drug users also test positive in some areas.

“It’s in crisis, and HIV is growing exponentially there,” Murphy told AFP at the 15th International AIDS Conference gathering in Bangkok.

“The response is also 10 years late in terms of scale-up when compared to Thailand’s response,” he added.

Myanmar’s neighbour saw infection rates rocket in the early 1990s, but Thailand’s frank public awareness campaigns and 100 percent condom-use programmes reversed the trend.

Yangon is relatively flush with aid money to fight AIDS, experts say, but infrastructure problems and lack of hospital facilities are hampering the country’s ability to fight the disease.

A joint Fund for HIV/AIDS in Myanmar (FHM) has put together 42 million dollars for AIDS prevention and treatment in 2003-2005.

The world’s war chest to fight AIDS, the Global Fund, has also allotted 54 million dollars to the country, but sources say the money may not get used because of western opposition to the junta.

The military regime has ruled the country since 1962 and critics, headed by the European Union and the United States, have dismissed claims it is heading towards a democracy as a sham.

But Murphy said the fight against the epidemic should not be hamstrung by the political showdown.

Aung San Suu Kyi, Myanmar’s detained opposition leader, has also publicly endorsed the country’s anti-AIDS plans, he said.

Min Thwe, who heads the National AIDS Control Program in Myanmar, told the conference his government is tackling the crisis.

Only 150 HIV-positive people countrywide are being treated with crucial antiretroviral medicines, but Myanmar has targeted treatment for 2,000 people by the end of this year and 12,000 by late 2005, Min Thwe said.