LONDON (AlertNet) - With huge populations where a fraction of a percentage increase means millions of lives, Asia is likely to become the new frontline in the fight against HIV/AIDS.

Over one million Asians became infected with HIV in 2004, and 540,000 died of AIDS in the region that year. Today, an estimated 8.2 million Asians are living with HIV/AIDS.

AIDS in Asia is often overshadowed by the epidemic in Africa, where per capita HIV/AIDS rates in many countries easily outstrip the rest of the world. But the number of people infected with HIV/AIDS worldwide would double if prevalence rates in the region’s most populous countries -- China, India and Indonesia -- climb to rates now seen in Thailand and Cambodia.

UNAIDS says that China, which has a population of 1.29 billion people, could experience explosive and widespread epidemics.

The Chinese Ministry of Health estimated as many as one million people were infected with HIV at the end of 2002, but experts believe the actual number of HIV-positive Chinese people is higher. China lacks the resources to collect data from the countryside, and the government’s data is based largely on the surveillance of high-risk groups.

The most frequent modes of transmission include the sharing of contaminated needles among intravenous drug users in southern and western China and the unsafe collection of blood in central provinces, where AIDS deaths are increasing.

HIV/AIDS is spreading to the general population, and UNAIDS estimates there could be as many as 10 million HIV-positive Chinese by 2010. India, home to 1.049 billion people, has a HIV/AIDS infection rate estimated at 0.9 percent.

More than 5.1 million Indians are infected, and although 90 percent of cases are confined to just six states, experts say the disease is spreading beyond the high-risk population.

Despite education campaigns, transmission among high-risk groups such as sex workers, truck drivers and intravenous drug users is still on the rise. Some Indian AIDS activists argue that the government has failed to focus any attention on migrant workers, who they say are another high-risk group.

According to the U.N. Population Division, nearly 49.5 million Indians will die of the disease between 2015 and 2050, more than in any other country in the world.