Publications

The National AIDS Control Programme/Ministry of Health estimates, using WHO/UNAIDS Epi-forecast model, the number of HIV infected individuals in Pakistan at the end of 2005 as between 70-80, 000; this would amount to a prevalence of less than 0.1%. The reported cases to the NACP are still low, however, NACP, MoH estimates that there are 70,000 estimated HIV/AIDS cases in the country. A situation that highlights the important fact that there is a slow and gradual increase in the number of reported/diagnosed cases over the years.

It is believed that HIV prevalence in Timor-Leste is currently low. However HIV/AIDS has had a devastating impact on other countries in comparable circumstances to Timor-Leste. Among Timor-Leste’s nearest neighbors Papua New Guinea appears to be in the early stages of a generalized HIV epidemic which threatens to not only halt, but reverse the development achievements that nation has made in its relatively short history. Many of the circumstances that have led to the current HIV situation in Papua New Guinea are also present in Timor-Leste including large scale social dislocation and high levels of HIV related risk behaviors.

Timor Leste is a country in the early stages of national development. As such it faces significant challenges common to all new nations as well as specific challenges resulting from its own unique history, culture and environment.

The Cambodian HIV epidemic appears to have slightly decreased with a HIV prevalence among adults aged 15-49 that declined from 2.1% in 2002 to 1.9% in 2003. In 2003, 123,100 adults aged 15-49 years were estimated to be living with HIV/AIDS with women accounting for 47% of them. Of the total number of adult living with HIV/AIDS, 19,814 were estimated to have AIDS. These estimates, together with the rough estimates (NCHADS) of 12,000 children infected in 2003 with HIV will be updated. In April 2004, a Workshop was organized by NCHADS to prepare the Annual Comprehensive Work Plan 2005, based upon the up-dated Strategic Plan, with provinces and NGO partners. Three MoH departments (Planning, TB and NMCHC) also participated. At this meeting Annual national and provincial targets were set. The result was the Annual Operational Comprehensive Plan 2005, which incorporated, for the first time, many of the inputs and expected outputs of partners working in coordination with PAOs in provinces. This Work plan was also firmly grounded within the Ministry of Health Annual Operational Plan 2005, prepared for the HSSP.

Major increases in HIV-1 prevalence in India have been predicted. Incident infections need to be tracked to understand the epidemic’s course, especially in some southern states of India where the epidemic is more advanced. To estimate incidence, we investigated the prevalence of HIV-1 in young people attending antenatal and sexually transmitted infection (STI) clinics in India. A reduction of more than a third in HIV-1 prevalence in 2000–04 in young women in south India seems realistic, and is not easily attributable to bias or to mortality. This fall is probably due to rising condom use by men and female sex workers in south India, and thus reduced transmission to wives. Expansion of peer-based condom and education programmes for sex workers remains a top priority to control HIV-1 in India.

There are 67,528 cumulative cases of HIV/AIDS reported in Malaysia up to June 20051. For the last five years, the number of newly detected HIV cases has been at an average of 6000 to 6900 per year. Since the disease emerged in 1986, the profile of HIV infection has remained consistently driven by the injecting drug users (IDUs), male, young people aged 20-39 years and among the Malay ethnic group.

From late December 2005 to March 2006, the Philippines undertook a series of initiatives to develop its targets and roadmap in line with the global initiative towards “Scaling Up Universal Access to HIV Prevention, Treatment, Care and Support”. The target-setting process undertaken highlighted crucial issues in scaling up that have already been identified in previous assessment exercises.

With 158 million people, Pakistan is one of the most populous countries in the world. It is also one of the poorest, with 66% of the total population living on less than US$2 a day (Population Reference Bureau, 2005.). In Pakistan, as in many developing countries, poverty is intrinsically linked with poor sexual and reproductive health (SRH).

In Cambodia, a national consultation on universal access was held on February 7, 2006, with participation from representatives from government, civil society, the donor community, and other stakeholders. The results of this consultation were distilled into a country report that was presented at a regional consultation held in Pattaya, Thailand on February 14-16. This document refines the initial country report, in line with the recommendations that arose from the regional consultation.

Mongolia is a country in North East Asia with a population of 2.5 million. Since 1992 there were 16 cases of HIV/AIDS reported. As of December 2005 the number of HIV/AIDS cases is estimated to be less than 500 cases (WHO/UNAIDS Global Report). Eleven of the 16 reported cases were diagnosed within 2005, while the remaining 5 cases were diagnosed over a period of 12 years. At the end of 2005, many indications point that Mongolia is at the brink of an HIV epidemic with an imminent risk to the widespread dissemination of HIV to the general population through sexual transmission.