"We're half-way through. There are still about 500,000 more who need to be covered by antiretroviral treatment (before we) reach the universal access target," he told reporters on the sidelines of the ninth International Congress on AIDS in Asia and the Pacific (ICAAP) in Bali, Indonesia.
An estimated five million Asians are living with HIV, many of them in Thailand, Cambodia, the Philippines and Indonesia, according to a UN report released last year.
"At any one point, 20 percent (of the people living with HIV) would be needing treatment," he said.
The one-million figure means "the region will be able to achieve something substantial in terms of putting people on treatment" even though "new infections continue to occur", he said.
"I'm very confident we will be able to achieve it... because more money is coming from global funding and better programming by countries," he added.
Rao told reporters that up to 80 percent of HIV-positive people in Thailand, Cambodia and Laos were receiving treatment, but some other countries were only managing to reach 10 to 15 percent.
Delegates from 65 nations are attending the meeting, which runs until Thursday, to discuss topics ranging from HIV risks among migrant workers to the impact of the financial crisis on those with the disease.
Source: AFP
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