Tools and Guidelines

This toolkit focuses on TIs for FSW populations. It draws upon almost two decades of experience from programmes implemented by the World Health Organization’s (WHO) Western Pacific and South-East Asia Regions (WPRO/SEARO). While examples and issues specific to FSWs are highlighted, many of these issues would be common to male sex worker (MSW) interventions, and the approaches can be adapted to meet the needs of MSWs. This toolkit aims to demonstrate how a small number of recommended indicators can provide critical information to guide interventions. These tools can be used at different levels of management to track the progress of a programme and focus efforts on achieving targets. Special attention is paid to how data can be used by on-site managers to help them make periodic decisions.

This training manual has been written as a companion to the WHO Clinical Guidelines for Withdrawal Management & Treatment of Drug Dependence in Closed Settings. It contains comprehensive trainer's notes and participant handouts. A powerpoint slideshow is also provided as a teaching aid. The training described in this manual is suitable for all people who work in a health or welfare capacity in closed settings and whose work involves people who use drugs.  Throughout the trainer's notes are sections of boxed text containing references to participant handouts. These should be used to ensure participants are looking at the correct handouts. Also in boxed text are suggested activities. The trainer may wish to use these, or to use other activities that they have found useful in training.

The World Health Organization (WHO) worked on the revision of the Use of antiretroviral drugs for treating pregnant women and preventing hiv infection in infants: recommendations for a public health approach, 2006, through a series of coordinated efforts to review and synthesize emerging evidence. This evidence was assembled following systematic reviews, GRADE profile analysis, consultations with key implementers, cost review, and peer review. The aim was to identify evidence-based recommendations that would be likely to deliver high quality care. The evidence and its quality, risks and benefits, acceptability, feasibility, cost and financial implications, were considered by the Guideline Review Committee and the Peer Review Group, who agreed on a series of updated recommendations.

The guideline Antiretroviral therapy for hiv infection in adults and adolescents, developed by World Health Organization (WHO), was first published in 2002, simplified in 2003 and was updated in 2006. The guideline continues to follow the principles of a public health approach, aiming to optimize outcomes, including the quality of life and survival, of people living with HIV (PLHIV), and to act as a reference tool for countries to adopt and adapt according to their national circumstances. During 2009, WHO has worked to update the guideline through a series of coordinated efforts to review and synthesize emerging evidence on when to initiate antiretroviral therapy (ART), what drug regimens to use, and the management of co-infections and treatment failure. This evidence has been assembled following systematic reviews, GRADE* profile preparation and analysis, consultations with PLHIV, cost and economic impact studies, country-level feasibility assessment, and comparisons of current country guidelines.

WHO recommendations on infant feeding and HIV were last revised in 2006 (published in 2007 as an HIV and Infant Feeding Update – ISBN 978 92 4 159596 41). Significant programmatic experience and research evidence regarding HIV and infant feeding have accumulated since then. In particular, evidence has been reported that antiretroviral (ARV) interventions to either the HIV-infected mother or HIV-exposed infant can significantly reduce the risk of postnatal transmission of HIV through breastfeeding. This has major implications for how women living with HIV might choose to feed their infants, and how health workers should counsel mothers when making these choices. The potential of ARVs to reduce HIV transmission throughout the period of breastfeeding also highlights the need for guidance on how child health services should communicate information about ARVs to prevent transmission through breastfeeding, and the implications for feeding of HIV exposed infants through the first two years of life.

This Resource Estimation Tool for Advocacy (RETA) User’s Guide is a companion to RETA. RETA is a Microsoft Office Excel‐based tool that will help you calculate the resources you need to implement the Comprehensive Package of HIV Prevention Services for Men Who Have Sex with Men.

The National Gender Equality Policy and Framework for Action consolidates President Mohamed Nasheed’s women's policy framework announced in the International Women’s Day (2009) statement into public policy. The draft includes recommendations for an effective NWM/ Lead Agency for gender mainstreaming, and the tools for gender mainstreaming, and is targeted at realising change through coherent, focused, strategic, rights-based, result-oriented action for gender equality.

The National HIV/AIDS Action Plan and Budget for 2005-2006 was produced following extensive consultation about the extent of the problem, and what needs to be done about it. Stakeholders – i.e. government officials, representatives of beneficiary groups, broader civil society actors, and donor partners – are all agreed that the Action Plan provides the single point of reference for the HIV/AIDS response in Nepal. The 2005-06 Action Plan addresses needs and issues that have emerged as a result of the current broader social, economic, and political context of the country and of developments within the community of stakeholders in HIV and AIDS.

This Guidance Note provides important practical tips for working with groups of people living with HIV in the Asia-Pacific region. Its purpose is to facilitate equal, effective and synergistic partnerships between development organisations/practitioners and PLHIV networks. Ethically, it is grounded in the same human-rights principles as those of GIPA (Greater Involvement of People Living with HIV/AIDS): empowerment, non-discrimination, ownership and active, meaningful participation. Functionally, its aim is to improve future interventions by groups working with PLHIV networks in other contexts. It is a practical guide, based on a wealth of experience and learning drawn from PLHIV networks and their supporting partners in several countries across the Asia-Pacific region.

HIV is the greatest threat to development facing the world today. Most children living with HIV were infected by their mothers who are living with HIV. These children get infected during pregnancy, childbirth or during breastfeeding. For the mother to infect the child, she might have been infected before she got pregnant, when she was pregnant or even when she was breastfeeding. We know that we can prevent HIV in children by preventing the mother from initial infection, by preventing unintended pregnancies in women with HIV and, by ensuring that pregnant women with HIV have the care that prevents mother-to-child transmission. We can now considerably reduce the chances of a baby being infected by his/her mother. Globally, this intervention has come to be known as PMTCT—prevention of mother-to-child transmission. Without PMTCT about 35% of babies born to women with HIV will be infected. With PMTCT this is reduced to about 5%. The Fiji, Vanuatu, Kiribati and Solomon Islands PMTCT Training Package is based largely on the 2007 update of the PMTCT Generic Training Package (GTP) that was developed under the direction of the World Health Organization and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention for adaptation by countries and regions across the globe. This PMTCT Training Package is expected to play a key role in accelerating the scale up of PMTCT services in the Pacific region through training of healthcare workers to implement appropriate, quality services for PMTCT.