Publications

HIV and AIDS have left virtually no country, rich or poor, untouched. The Pacific island countries are no exception. Fed by rapid economic and social changes, conditions have become increasingly conducive to the spread of HIV. Leaders are beginning to match words with action, and progress on prevention, testing and counselling has been made, but much more needs to be done. Children are the missing face of AIDS, and failure to take account of their critical needs for prevention, protection, treatment and care will acutely undermine the region's chance of achieving other development objectives, including the Millennium Development Goals. HIV and AIDS are redefining the very meaning of childhood, depriving children and young people of the care, love and protection of their parents, of education and options for the future, and of protection against exploitation and abuse. All too often, children affected by HIV and AIDS are stigmatized and discriminated against or slip through social welfare systems, and those children who are already infected are missing out on vital treatment and medical care.

I was born male and identify as one. Until recently I hadn't asked myself why I had turned out this way. Yet many transpeople I know have long asked this question of themselves. What's more, there is a small army of researchers trying to uncover answers to the same question. Relatively few seem interested in going up to a trans person and simply asking him or her 'Why do you think you turned out this way?

On 25 October 2005, the Joint UN Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS), UNICEF and partners across the globe launched the most ambitious campaign to date to focus the world’s attention on the impact HIV and AIDS are having on children and young people today. Under the banner “Unite for Children, Unite against AIDS”, the Global Campaign on Children and AIDS sought to raise the alarm for the millions of children already living with or affected by HIV and press countries into taking action for them and future generations. For too long, children have been absent from the global HIV prevention, AIDS treatment and care agendas, and the campaign seeks to relegate these grievous omissions to the past. This campaign could not have come at a more opportune time in East Asia and the Pacific. While HIV prevalence in the region remains relatively low, the virus poses a serious threat. East Asia’s massive population coupled with rapidly changing social and economic dynamics could escalate epidemics, and in turn, jeopardize the tremendous development gains that have greatly benefited millions of children in the region. The threat is of a different nature in the Pacific, where HIV could devastate sparse populations and undermine whole cultures and societies.

Asia-Pacific countries have reached a critical point in their response to HIV/AIDS. Until now, levels of HIV infection in most countries have remained relatively low and the response of most governments has been similarly low-key. The region’s HIV epidemics, however, are accelerating. A million Asian and Pacific people became infected with HIV last year and more than half a million people died of AIDS. The figures will be higher in 2004. How much worse this appalling toll becomes will depend largely on what national leaders do now. At this stage, when epidemics are still concentrated in certain population groups and geographic areas, the opportunity still exists to avert a greater disaster.

Hong Kong locates in Asia, the new burning place of HIV infection, but still enjoying a low-prevalence of HIV infection. While sexual transmission was the predominant route of transmission in Hong Kong, an outbreak in injecting drug users was worried as taking reference from the experience in other Asian areas. Various public health measures have kept the prevalence of drug users at exceptional low level, as comparing with our neighbouring cities. This year, an increasing trend was detected in Men who have Sex with Men (MSM) in Hong Kong. The report analysed the attributes of the increase of HIV infections in MSM observed. A HIV-1 Subtype B cluster of similar gene sequencing affecting 20 individuals, mostly MSM, was firstly detected in Hong Kong. It signified the increased risk of local transmission of HIV among MSM.

A systematic and consultative HIV estimation process has been ongoing in India since 1998. During the year 2005–2006 a series of activities were initiated to improve the estimation methodology, and the input data base for estimation has been enriched with the availability of multiple data sources.

Ever since the first case of HIV/AIDS was reported in Thailand in 1984, it had become a widespread problem affecting Thai people’s health, social life and economy. The HIV/AIDS pandemic began with the first HIV/AIDS transmission from an infected homosexual to a commercial sex worker in Thailand. Since then, it had spread to promiscuous men, housewives and eventually to the general public.

After the first detection of HIV/ AIDS in the country in 1987 the number of HIV infection has increased dramatically over the last eighteen years. At the end of 2002, HIV/AIDS epidemic in PNG was considered to have reached a generalized state. The total number of reported cases in 2002 was 1715 and the annual reported cases of HIV for 2003 and 2004 were 2299 and 2490 respectively. By June 2005 the number of reported cases had reached 1089 in that year. The cumulative total of HIV infection from 1987 to June 2005 was 12,341.

Adolescence is a critical period during which dramatic physical, physiological, emotional and behavioral changes take place quite suddenly. These changes coupled with the absence of authentic information to know, understand and appreciate them, cause anxiety among adolescents who may be pushed into courses of actions without having a chance to think fully of consequences.

The global AIDS response has steadily grown and gained momentum since UN Member States made a Declaration of Commitment on HIV/AIDS at the 2001 Special Session of the UN General Assembly. This momentum has occurred within wider efforts to place countries more firmly in command of their own development programmes. Based on these developments, UNAIDS is facilitating a multi-partner, country-driven effort to scale up towards Universal Access.