What's New

The International Council of AIDS Service Organizations (ICASO) developed this brief to provide the HIV community with current information and analysis of new and updated clinical data on the effectiveness of antiretroviral therapy (ART) in preventing HIV transmission to sexual partners of people living with HIV. While the health benefits of treatment will always be the primary purpose of ART, it is vital that the secondary benefits to people living with HIV and their sexual partners be fully understood and communicated.

In October 2017, there were 918 new HIV antibody seropositive individuals reported to the HIV/AIDS and ART Registry of the Philippines (HARP). Eighty-six percent of those were asymptomatic at the time of reporting.

This brief summarises findings from research undertaken by Save the Children and the World Bank on the lack of legal protection against child marriage for girls and marriages that take place below the national minimum age of marriage. The analysis suggests that many countries still do not effectively legally protect girls against child marriage, but also that legal reforms are not sufficient to end the practice as many girls marry illegally in countries where legal protections are in place. While protecting girls in the law against child marriage is an important first step, additional interventions are needed to prevent child marriage.

This report presents the key findings of the NFHS-4 survey in Odisha, followed by detailed tables and an appendix on sampling errors. At the time of finalization of this report, wealth quintiles for the country as a whole were not ready. Therefore, on finalization of the national report, the breakup of key indicators by wealth quintiles for all states will be provided as an additional document and uploaded on the official website of MoHFW and IIPS.

There was much to do following the UN General Assembly Special Session on drugs (UNGASS) to analyse and unpack the outcomes, reflect on the lessons learned and most importantly, capitalise on the growth in the visibility, credibility and reach that the IDPC network gained from being front and centre of civil society efforts in the UNGASS process. A key focus has been on supporting members and other civil society partners to leverage the progress made in the Outcome Document on human rights, harm reduction, criminal justice reform, etc. in national and regional policy debates. This progress report provides much more detail in relation to IDPC's activities over the period of 2016-2017, including continuing efforts to build capacity for drug policy advocacy and the numerous publications and resources produced during this period.

SRHR/HIV linkages are bidirectional synergies in policy, programmes, and service delivery that support comprehensive sexual and reproductive health needs and rights of all people, including people living with HIV, within a framework of gender equality and human rights. These infographics highlight current guidance from WHO on key aspects of SRHR/HIV Linkages.

Everywhere in the world, human rights violations, fear, prejudice, stigma and discrimination persist, including in health-care settings. Today, I am launching a UNAIDS report entitled Confronting discrimination, which describes the magnitude and impact of stigma and discrimination in health care and gives concrete examples for addressing it.

The four days workshop in two batches was organized to reduce the impact of HIV among MSM and transgender population in South Asia. The workshop focus was to develop an understanding of all the relevant and emergent issues related to MSM and transgender population of South Asia region. Partners In Progress, Consulting LLP, from India, was invited to conduct the workshop in two batches, the first batch from 12 -15 September and second batch from 18 to 21 September 2017, in Courtyard by Marriot hotel in Bangkok, Thailand. The workshop focused on addressing various relevant issues of HIV/AIDS programs amongst MSM/TG/HIJRA community in South Asia region.

This report presents the key findings of the NFHS-4 survey in Chhattisgarh, followed by detailed tables and an appendix on sampling errors. At the time of finalization of this report, wealth quintiles for the country as a whole were not ready. Therefore, on finalization of the national report, the breakup of key indicators by wealth quintiles for all states will be provided as an additional document and uploaded on the official website of MoHFW and IIPS.

Sri Lanka, during these last five years, has successfully maintained its low HIV prevalence status although numbers of HIV positive cases have been slowly rising over the years. The main population groups with a rising number of HIV positive cases have been males having sex with males (MSM) and returnee external migrant workers. However, numbers are not high so that identifying the key populations (KPs) in Sri Lanka is not straightforward.