Sex education to youngsters can not be ignored when tackling HIV/AIDS in India, an official of the United States Embassy in India said on Monday.

Engaging youngsters and creating awareness among them about prevention and treatment of AIDS was necessary, Michael Friedman of Centre for Disease Control of the embassy said at a conference organised by the Madras Medical Mission.

Clinical commitment, expertise in treatment and quality medical system were essential for the treatment of HIV patients, he said.

He added Thailand and Uganda were fighting AIDS successfully through clinical commitment and there was more need for it in India.

HIV/AIDS could grow to alarming proportions in India, if we turned a blind eye to it, thinking that some vaccines were around the corner.

In fact, a medicine to the disease would not be available in the near future, he said.

"The suffering caused by AIDS is like that of cancer, but the stigma attached to it more than cancer. Three crore people in the world have died of AIDS.

"Thousands of people are dying everyday due to AIDS."

He said the life expectancy of people in South Africa had gone down to less than 40 years due to AIDS. Though the US government had sanctioned 15 billion dollars for fighting HIV globally, most of it was spent in African countries.

"India should solve its problems by itself, though others could provide the techniques and expertise. We are moving in the right direction, though we have a long way to go" he said.