RIO DE JANEIRO, July 25 (Xinhuanet) -- Nearly 26 countries, mostly Asian, which previously had shown a decline in HIV cases, are now facing a resurgence of the deadly disease, experts said Monday.

    The situation could considerably damage the fight against the disease on the world stage, experts congregating at the latest conference of the International AIDS Association said in Rio de Janeiro.

    Christopher Beyer, a specialist from Johns Hopkins University, a leading research center in the United States, said the HIV virusis spreading fast and causing concern in Central Asia and the former Soviet republics, where prevention mechanisms and treatment services are deficient.

    In regions where the disease has reached serious levels for some time, like areas in sub-Saharan Africa, a growing number of people are simultaneously infected by more than one strain of the HIV-virus, they noted.

    "This suggests an increase in the genetic diversity of HIV, which makes more complex the search for new efficient treatments,"said Francine McCutchan, an expert with the United States Military HIV Research Program. Enditem