Publications

Bangladesh Demographic and Health Survey (BDHS) 2014 is the seventh survey of its kind conducted in Bangladesh. This survey was implemented through a collaborative effort of the National Institute of Population Research and Training (NIPORT), ICF International, USA and Mitra & Associates. The wealth of demographic and health data that BDHS 2014 provides is essential and instrumental in monitoring and evaluating the performance of the Health, Population and Nutrition Sector Development Program (HPNSDP). BDHS presents estimates for 18 indicators of the Results Framework of HPNSDP and considered as a major source of information for program monitoring.

The 2014 Bangladesh Health Facility Survey (BHFS) is the third of its kind. The survey collected information from all seven administrative divisions on the preparedness of health facilities to provide high quality care that met the minimum requirement of WHO indicators for clients who sought services for family planning, maternal health, and child health, as well as tuberculosis and selected noncommunicable diseases (NCDs). The survey presented results separately for the seven administrative divisions, all seven types of public facilities—district hospitals (DHs), maternal and child welfare centers (MCWCs), upazila health complexes (UHCs), upgraded union health and family welfare centers (upgraded UHFWCs), union health and family welfare centers (UHFWCs), union sub-centers/rural dispensaries (USCs/RDs), and community clinics (CCs)—as well as private hospitals with at least 20 beds and NGO static clinics and hospitals.

Gay, bisexual men and other men who have sex with men are among the small number of groups for which the HIV epidemic remains uncontrolled worldwide. Inability to mount true-to fact responses that are tailored to the sexual health needs of our communities threatens to undermine gains made in reaching global targets set by UNAIDS. Moreover, in the premature and overly optimistic stampede towards the "end of AIDS", the gravity of the situation for gay and bisexual men is down-played or ignored. The HIV needs of gay, bisexual men and other men who have sex with men must be addressed openly, quickly, and with sufficient resources to support evidence-based, communityled, and human rights-affirming interventions at scale. We need a bolder, more evidence-driven global response to HIV that isn’t fearful of openly acknowledging gay, bisexual men and other men who have sex with men and their sexual health needs. HIV service approaches must be developed, updated, and aligned with normative guidance endorsed by UN agencies.

Since 1994, the Advisory Council on AIDS (ACA) has produced five sets of recommended strategies for Hong Kong to advise the government on her responses to HIV/AIDS, including programmes and services, funding and policies. The latest set of strategies is for the year of 2012-2016. There is a need to formulate another set for the year of 2017-2021 in light of the current HIV/AIDS epidemic. The ACA adopts a broad-based, participatory and integrated approach to formulate the recommended HIV/AIDS strategies for Hong Kong 2017-2021.

This strategy update responds to a number of critical external factors, in particular the evolution of the HIV epidemic and the momentum behind treatment scale-up, new global targets for HIV treatment, prevention and non-discrimination, the continued withdrawal of development financing from middle income countries, uneven - and in many countries shrinking - policy and fiscal space for civil society, human rights challenges, increased efforts focusing on sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR), the new Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), and the ambition to achieve inclusive development and equity. This update focuses on where we need to evolve to address these developments. It is not an entirely new strategy, so our four result areas and four responses are retained. Within our updated strategic results framework we present a new, unifying measure for monitoring and reporting public health impact.

Intimate partner violence against women is a complex, enormously prevalent crime with devastating effects on women’s safety, health, and well being. With one out of three women worldwide experiencing this violence, its magnitude presents complex challenges to justice systems when survivors of violence seek to formally prosecute perpetrators. Further exacerbating this challenge are the varying individual, family, and community ideas about whether and how such violence – considered a private family matter in many cultural and social contexts – should be made public at all, let alone prosecuted.

In late 2015, UNAIDS issued long-awaited HIV prevention targets, including a call for a total of 27 million additional voluntary medical male circumcision (VMMC) procedures by 2020. This works out to more than five million procedures per year on average—two million more than have ever been performed. PEPFAR’s peak performance was 2.8 million in a single year. It won’t be close to that in 2017. PEPFAR doesn’t need to, and indeed shouldn’t, pay for the pursuit of global VMMC targets on its own. The Global Fund should ensure that country concept notes fill the space; PEPFAR and UNAIDS should advocate for resource-mobilization in country and global forums; and national governments should step up the pace.

HIV-related deaths and new HIV infections among people who inject drugs could be almost entirely eliminated by 2030 with just a tiny shift in global drug control spending. This is one finding of our report The Case for a Harm Reduction Decade. The study uses data we have collected over the last 10 years for our biennial Global State of Harm Reduction reports to assess progress and reflect on challenges faced around the world. Using mathematical modelling, it then outlines the potential impact of increased investment in harm reduction on avoidable health-related harms associated with injecting drug use over the next decade and beyond.

Discrimination in health care settings is one of the foremost barriers preventing people living with HIV and key populations from accessing critical health services. For people living with HIV, disclosure can mean they are denied surgery or treatment. This report summarizes documented experiences of discrimination against people living with HIV in health care settings, and discusses the devastating consequences for those patients in the region who are turned away by health care practitioners because of their status. Based on 202 interviews conducted by 8 community based organizations in Cambodia, China, Myanmar and Viet Nam, this report documents discriminatory practices against people living with HIV, including involuntary testing, disclosure, segregation, and arbitrary additional expenses for patients due to their HIV status. For women living with HIV, discrimination also extends to sexual and reproductive health services, including advice against pregnancy and, in some cases, sterilization on the advice of doctors due to their HIV status.  This report also documents health care done right. Examples where affected communities, health care providers and governments work together to increase awareness of HIV prevention, illustrate best practices to reduce discrimination and ensure the right to health for all.

The preparation of the 2015 Global AIDS Response Progress Report (GARPR) for Palau was facilitated and compiled by the Ministry of Health (MoH), in consultation with relevant government agencies and one non-government organization (NGO) partner involved in the response to HIV/AIDS and STIs in Palau, and with technical assistance from a UNAIDS consultant assigned to this task.