(Adds New Delhi release, Indian official quotes)

By Kamil Zaheer

NEW DELHI, April 17 (Reuters) - Only 19 percent of Asians who need AIDS drugs receive them, a World Health Organisation (WHO) report said on Tuesday, calling for a surge in treatment to meet a 2010 goal for universal access.

South, southeast and east Asia, including India with the world's highest caseload of HIV-positive people, all lag behind Sub-Saharan Africa, where 28 percent of people needing treatment received it in 2006, the report said.

"Universal access by 2010 will require a steep increase in the number of people starting treatment every year," said the report.

In 2006, the U.N. General Assembly agreed to work towards universal access to "comprehensive prevention programmes, treatment, care and support" by 2010.

Asia compares poorly with the Caribbean and Latin America where overall treatment coverage is around 72 percent, although 280,000 people in south, southeast and east Asia were on anti-AIDS treatment in 2006, a four-fold jump over 2003.

The WHO report is backed by the United Nations' anti-AIDS agency (UNAIDS) and UNICEF. Its figures excluded Central Asia.

There are 7.8 million people living with HIV in east, south and southeast Asia, out of the world's total of nearly 40 million cases.

India, with 5.7 million people living with HIV/AIDS, falls way behind South Africa -- home to the second-highest number of people with the virus -- in terms of treatment.

India has only around 100,000 people on treatment while South Africa has 325,000. Referring to India, the report said: "This is far short of the total need."

Some 520,000 Indians need AIDS drugs.

INDIA'S MIXED RECORD

India's National AIDS Control Organisation chief Sujatha Rao said the epidemic in India was "well under control" and "prevention would remain the bedrock of our strategy".

Rao, speaking at the release of the WHO report in New Delhi, said India would boost treatment centres from 130 to 250 by the end of 2009.

She also said India planned to increase the number of people being tested from four million in 2006 to 22 million by 2010.

"Testing is our big challenge and we are focusing our attention on this," she said.

Asia does better than Sub-Saharan Africa on treatment for children but on both continents the majority of children needing drugs do not receive them, the report said.

Only an estimated 13 percent of the 680,000 children under 15 in Sub-Saharan Africa who need anti-AIDS drugs receive them, while in Asia it is 21 percent of an estimated 64,000 children.

Less than three percent of HIV-positive pregnant women in India received drugs for prevention of viral transmission from mother to child in 2005. India is a focus nation of the report.

"It is a huge challenge to get prophylaxis treatment to prevent mother-to-child transmission," Rao told reporters, adding that one major problem was access as millions of Indian women gave birth at home each year.

The WHO report said Thailand was a rare success in Asia when it came to treating pregnant women with HIV.

Ninety-eight percent of women who gave birth in state-run facilities in Thailand were tested and counselled. Of those found positive, 94 percent were treated to prevent transmission.

Rao said she was worried about the rising spread of HIV among injecting drug users in newer areas in India from its concentration in the northeast until now.

"There is evidence to show that Punjab and New Delhi, which are in the mainland, are being affected."

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