Welcome to the 1st edition of E-News Flash from AIDS Data Hub for Asia-Pacific, Newsletter.

What is the HIV & AIDS Data Hub?

• A repository of HIV & AIDS data for the Asia-Pacific region
• A one-stop center, single online resource providing comprehensive HIV & AIDS data and analysis of country-specific and regional trends
• Key data on major indicators on HIV risk, vulnerability, prevalence, infection estimates, socio-economic impact and national responses are found for 24 countries of the region and Hong Kong

Why is a Data Hub useful now?

• Increased technicality and complexity of the HIV information
• Increasing recognition that global HIV and AIDS data should be complemented by analysis at regional level with feedback to countries.
• Increased recognition that there is a need for synthesis and triangulation of data which would enable a strategic direction for advocacy and programmatic decisions
• The overarching goal is to contribute to universal access of HIV prevention, care and support by increasing the availability and use of timely and accurate HIV information at national and regional level.
  
  

Why news flash?

• to provide you with the new information on data within the region and new events in relation to HIB startgic information
• Latest addition of a regional table on injecting drug users, sex workers and men having sex with men. This table provides information on HIV prevalence, coverage, testing, comprehensive knowledge and condom use on countries within the region. (Give the link or www.AIDSdatabase.org, regional data)
• New materials in the resource library: from Bangladesh, India, Myanmar, Regional and World Bank latest publications.
• Updated country slides in Myanmar and Malaysia
  
  

As highlighted in the AIDS Commission report, a comprehensive HIV/AIDS surveillance system including data on risk behaviors and data on the current coverage of HIV prevention programs are critical for a successful response to the HIV epidemic.

While progress has been made in collecting the relevant information for planning and monitoring HIV programmes, several data gaps remain:

• An analysis carried out last month by the Data Hub illustrated that half of the countries within the region have carried out surveys on three critical groups at higher risk: men who have sex with men, injecting drug users and sex workers in the last 4 years,25% have carried out surveys on only one or two of these groups. Another 25% (7 countries) of the countries in the region did not conduct any surveys in these population groups.
• As shown in Bangladesh, Singapore, Vietnam, China, when data are collected they are often not published or released in time to be useful for policy-making.
• Where data are available, it is often not used for decision making or improving program implementation direction or for a variety of reasons.
  

Warm regards,
Data hub team

Key Highlights

Latest Country Highlights

• Malaysia
  New HIV surveillance data gives some indications of a decline in the number of reported HIV cases, especially since 2003. However, there are important variations in the number of reported cases according to regions and ethnic communities. A firm confirmation that this trend reflects a real decline in the number of new infections is difficult to establish. There has been a consistent decrease of new reported HIV cases among injecting drug users in the recent years, associated with the rapid expansion of the harm reduction program. But the few studies carried out show that considerable risk behavior still exist, with a lack of impact of programs for controlling sexual transmission of HIV among IDUs. In addition, there are limitations in the current surveillance system because HIV testing is mandatory among IDUs, so their importance may be overestimated and variations in the yearly number of HIV cases may occur because of change in testing policy or law enforcement. The rise in the number of reported HIV cases among women through sexual transmission – from 6 percent to 16% ten years later- has raised concerns. The national AIDS program is encouraging women at risk to get voluntary HIV testing.
  
  
• Myanmar
  The new report of the HIV sentinel sero-surveillance survey 2007 also shows that the male to female ratio has changed from almost 8 to 1 in 1994 to 2.4 in 2006: a steady increase in the proportion of women being infected over the last years. HIV trends among populations with higher risk behaviours, sex workers and injecting drug users have been declining for the last few years but the trend needs to be confirmed in 2008. HIV prevalence among injecting drug users aged 15-24 was 28%; among young men having sex with men and young female sex workers, the prevalence was 15.5% and 13.7% respectively.
  

Latest Resource Materials

• Myanmar
  
  • Ministry of Health and WHO (2007) HIV Sentinel Sero - Surveillance Survey 2007 Myanmar, Ministry of Health and WHO
  • Ministry of Health and WHO (2007), Report from the Technical Working Group on Estimation and Projection of HIV and AIDS in Myanmar, Ministry of Health and WHO
• Bangladesh
  
  • Nazrul Islam Mondal. Kamal Hossain, Rafiqul Islam and abual Bashar Mian (2008). Sexual Behaviors & STI in Street Based FSW in Rajshahi City, Bangladesh. Department of Population Science and Human Resource Development, Institute if Bangladesh Studies.
  • Amala Reddy (2007). An Epidemic in Transition, A Synthesis of the HIV Situation in Bangladesh. Analysis and Advocacy Project, Family Health International Bangladesh Country Office, Dhaka, Bangladesh. April 2007
• India
  
  • NACO and NIHFW (2007), Annual HIV Sentinel Surveillance Country Report, New Delhi: National Institute of Health and Family Welfare and National AIDS Control Organization
  • National Institute of Medical Statistic and NACO (2006). Technical Report India Estimates 2006.
• Regional
  
  • World Bank (2009), HIV and AIDS in South Asia - An Economic Development Risk, World Bank

See our Reference Materials pages to view the documents mentioned above.

Latest Maps

• Nepal
  
  • Data Source: Nepal Demographic and Health Survey, 2006.
• Pakistan
  
  • Data Source: HIV II Generation Surveillance in Pakistan, National Report Round III. MOH, 2006-2007.
• Sri Lanka
  
  • Data Source: Sri Lanka Behavioral Surveillance Survey, 2006-2007.

HIV related events in March and April 2009

• New Strategies for HIV/AIDS Surveillance in Resource Constrained Settings II, 2-5th march 2009 in Bangkok, Thailand.
• 4th Technical Support Facility SEARP Interagency Reference Group Meeting, 5th march 2009 in Bangkok, Thailand.
• Commission on AIDS in the Pacific, 9 to 10 March 2009 in Canberra, Australia.
• 6th UNAIDS Regional Management Meeting, 16 to 18th March 2009, in Bangkok, Thailand.
• Regional Monitoring and Evaluation Meeting: EAPRO/ROSA Countries, coming together for this meeting on 30th March to 3rd April 2009 in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
• Media Leaders Seminar for countries of Southeast Asia, China and Mongolia 2009, on addressing key constrains and barriers in HIV prevention from 16-17th April 2009 in Beijing, China.
• International Harm Reduction Conference: 1sttime the conference is organized within this region, 20-23rd April 2009
• Thailand National AIDS Conference, 27-29th May 2009 AIDS Data Hub is an initiative of a partnership between the Asian Development Bank (ADB), the UN Joint Programme on AIDS (UNAIDS), the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) and the World Health Organization (WHO) – that provides user-friendly data on most-at-risk population groups, women, children, and young people, disaggregated by age and sex. It also probes provincial and district-level situation where data are available, and provides updates on the prevalence, behaviours and national responses.