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The countries of Asia and the Pacific stand at a crossroads, facing two diverging routes to the future. One route is “business as usual”. Though the easiest and cheapest route to take at the beginning, it ends up in rising levels of HIV infection and a toll far higher than the estimated 500 000 AIDS-related deaths that occurred in the region during 2004. The other route is one of determined prevention and care initiatives. Harder and more expensive at the beginning, it ends up stopping the epidemic in its tracks, and minimizing both its human and economic costs.
This report summarizes the AIDS challenge in Asian and Pacific countries. Using the best available evidence, it discusses the reasons why critical services currently reach only a fraction of those in need. It also outlines the action needed that will allow the region to seize this key moment of opportunity.
Resource | Publications,
This report contains the proceedings of a June 30, 2005, conference on the "East Asian Regional Response to HIV/AIDS, Tuberculosis, and Malaria," organized to commemorate the fifth anniversary of the Kyushu-Okinawa G8 Summit.
It is widely recognized that HIV/AIDS and other infectious diseases are among the world’s most urgent human security challenges, threatening the survival and livelihood of individuals and communities around the globe, particularly in developing countries. As many speakers emphasized, these diseases are increasingly regarded as threats to human security, and as a result they closely intersect with other threats such as poverty, hunger, in- equality, and violence, requiring a multifaceted and multisectoral response. In her talk, Dr. Kamarulzaman added several other socioeconomic factors that affect the region’s response to the spread of HIV/AIDS, such as vary- ing levels of literacy, rural to urban migration, and trafficking of women and children.
Resource | Publications,
In October 2003 the Prime Minister announced that the Australian National Council on Drugs (ANCD) had been asked to increase Australia’s involvement throughout the Asia–Pacific region, specifically to promote the prevention and reduction of drug use, and treatment for those with drug problems.
The body of this report provides a brief summary of the current illicit drug use situation, country responses to illicit drug issues, and Australian and international involvement in relation to illicit drugs for each country. More detailed analysis about each country, complete with referencing, is contained in Appendix A; and Australian and international project information, available at the time of the research, is outlined in Appendix B. The executive summary gives a broad overview of these data with findings for Asia and the Pacific presented separately.
Resource | Publications,
In Asia and the Pacific at the end of 2004, the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) estimates that 8.2 million people were living with HIV and the associated disease condition of AIDS, including 2.3 million women. This increased from 7.2 million in 2002 (women, 1.9 million). UNAIDS estimates that in 2004, 1.2 million people in the region became infected with HIV and 540,000 adults and children died from AIDS. The rapid increase of infections among women is particularly marked. In Cambodia, Myanmar, Papua New Guinea, Thailand, and several states of India the epidemic is firmly established in the general population. In other countries (e.g., People's Republic of China, Indonesia, and Viet Nam), low overall population prevalence rates disguise high, and rapidly growing, infection rates in specific population groups.
In 2002, Dr. Peter Piot, the Executive Director of UNAIDS, stated: "The epidemic in Asia threatens to become the largest in the world. With more than half the world's population, the region must treat AIDS as an issue of regional urgency. The question is no longer whether Asia and the Pacific will have a major epidemic, but rather how massive it will be." The goal for the Asian Development Bank (ADB) is to be an effective partner to its developing member countries (DMCs) in addressing this challenge.
Resource | Publications,
The rights violations against people living with HIV/AIDS (PLWHA) and vulnerable groups are part of a broader environment of social and gender inequality, marginalisation and discrimination in South Asia, which is providing perfect conditions for the epidemic to spread.
This study on which this report is based was commissioned to help enhance our understanding of the deep-rooted relationship between law, rights, the social and ethical environment, and HIV/AIDS vulnerability here in South Asia, as well as to provide actionable recommendations for legislative and policy reform. The findings have revealed a regional situation where significant human rights provisions exist, both in national constitutions and in ratified international conventions, but where there remains a serious disconnect between these provisions and people’s experience at community level.
Resource | Publications,
In recent decades, countries in the Asia-Pacific region have experienced an increase in the mobility - that is, internal and international migration - of men and women in the region. This phenomenon has been accompanied by the relentless spread of the HIV/AIDS epidemic, which affects all countries, including smaller or somewhat isolated countries such as Mongolia and the Democratic People's Republic of Korea.
The UNDP Regional HIV and Development Programme in partnership with Asia Pacific Migration Network (APMRN) commissioned this study in seven countries of the region - Bangladesh, China, Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK), India, Mongolia, Republic of Korea, and Sri Lanka - to undertake a systematic review of the existing knowledge on migration routes and processes, trafficking routes, the conditions under which men and women move, their living and working conditions, and their vulnerabilities to HIV/AIDS. The study also reviewed the legal and policy environments, and identified and analysed the gaps in the existing knowledge and areas for possible action.
Resource | Publications,
From July 2001 to November 2002, the Asia Pacific Network of People Living with HIV/AIDS (APN+) conducted the first regional documentation of AIDS-related discrimination in Asia. The project is an action-based, peer-led study that aimed to develop an understanding of the nature, pattern and extent of AIDS-related discrimination in several Asian countries. The project was designed and implemented by people living with HIV (positive people) and received ethical approval and funding from UNAIDS.
This study generated quantitative and qualitative data. Trained positive people interviewed 764 of their positive peers in four countries (India 302; Thailand 338; the Philippines 82; Indonesia 42). Findings indicate that AIDS-related discrimination is prevalent in every sector of society.
Resource | Publications,
The HIV/AIDS epidemic is still at a low level in the countries of Central Asia, but this situation presents a dual challenge: first, to call attention to the projected epidemic so that policy-makers at the national level understand what lies ahead, given international evidence on the growth of HIV infection; and second, to plan, in the context of extremely limited resources, a rational response to HIV/AIDS throughout the sub region. In Central Asia, as in the rest of ECA, the epidemic is rather significantly under-measured, but it is clear to all that HIV incidence is increasing, following epidemics of intravenous drug use (IDU) and sexually transmitted illnesses (STI) throughout these countries.
The Country Profiles summarize information available from Governments and partner organizations such as the UN agencies, USAID, and the Soros Foundation/OSI. It covers the following aspects: epidemiology; strategic and regulatory frameworks; surveillance; preventive, diagnostic, and treatment activities; non-governmental (NGO) and partner activities; and funding resources available.
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This report was prepared to support WHO efforts to introduce and scale up anti-retroviral therapy (ARV) according to the “WHO 3x5” initiative which is designed to provide three million people with ARV by the year 2005. The International Harm Reduction Association (IHRA) together with regional harm reduction networks was asked to recommend strategies for scaling up ARV to injecting drug users (IDU) and to identify the potential role of the harm reduction networks.
This report gives a regional and country specific overview of the current situation with regards to the provision of services including ARV to IDU/DU in Asia. It provides an analysis of the political environment that impedes or facilitates the provision of ARV to IDU, and offers some recommendations for scaling up ARV and identifies possible models of care.
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The Asia-Pacific region is home to 60% of the world’s population and to 19% of the men, women and children living with HIV in 2004. This amounts to infection rates that are low compared with some other continents, particularly Africa. But because the populations of many Asian nations are so huge, even low HIV prevalence means large numbers of people are living with HIV—some 5.2 million men, 2 million women and 168,000 children according to new estimates from UNAIDS/WHO. The Asia-Pacific region is vast and diverse, and HIV epidemics in the region share that diversity.
This report focuses largely on prevention of HIV among adults and adolescents. It focuses largely on East, South-East and South Asia, though it also includes information from some Central Asian nations, including Iran, as well as some of the developing countries of the Pacific.