It is imperative that countries remove travel restrictions on people with HIV/AIDS and continue financing global AIDS efforts, UNAIDS chief Michel Sidibe said Sunday during a meeting in Bangkok with lawmakers from 150 countries. Travel restrictions on people with HIV are "outdated" and "obsolete," said Sidibe, who lobbied those assembled to rescind such laws.

Greater inequality fueled by the economic downturn could make more people vulnerable to HIV/AIDS worldwide, said Sidibe, urging governments facing tight budgets not to reduce funding for prevention and treatment. "This is no time to stop," he said. "If we stop helping those people, the majority of whom are coming from the poorest segment of society, what we will face is a universal nightmare."

The elimination of mother-to-child transmission of HIV is obtainable by 2015, according to a recent report by the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, TB and Malaria. UNAIDS is also working to integrate HIV treatment with TB programs. However, HIV is still spreading into vulnerable populations, Sidibe said. In Africa, 40 percent of new HIV infections are in people who are married or in a stable relationship, he said. In Eastern Europe and central Asia, about 70 percent of new infections are in injection drug users who lack access to services because they are considered criminals, he said.