(Colombo)  Sri Lanka has remained relatively unscathed by the global AIDS pandemic, but for the tiny minority of people living with HIV, life is extremely hard.

"If you have AIDS, you become an immoral person overnight," said Chamara Sumanapala, a social commentator at the University of Colombo in the capital, Colombo. "People are simply not comfortable living with people who have HIV."

UNAIDS noted that HIV prevalence in Sri Lanka had gradually increased over the last 20 years and was likely to peak by 2012 and then stabilize. Current prevalence is estimated at 0.02 percent - 3,500 people were thought to be living with the virus in 2009 - and even among population groups considered high risk, HIV infection has consistently stayed below 1 percent.

David Bridger, Country Coordinator for UNAIDS in Sri Lanka, told IRIN/PlusNews that the government needed to develop an early warning system that would alert it to any sudden rise in HIV infections.

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Photo credit: Dinidu de Alwis/IRIN