A Strategy to Halt and Reverse the HIV Epidemic among People Who Inject Drugs in Asia and the Pacific 2010-2015

The present document, "A Strategy to Halt and Reverse the HIV Epidemic among People Who Inject Drugs in Asia and the Pacific, 2010–2015" can be a crucial tool. It is a call to action and a road map to ensure that the HIV and hepatitis epidemics among people who use drugs and their sexual partners in the Asia Pacific region will be halted. The strategy is designed to provide a regional framework, and it identifies issues and priorities and provides guidance to countries in the region for developing national strategic responses over the next six years. It shows the important link between halting the HIV epidemic and health and development, and will help countries achieve United Nations Millennium Development Goal 6 that calls for a halt and a reverse in the spread of HIV by 2015. 

The strategy reinforces the need for expansion of needle and syringe programmes, wide availability of opioid substitution therapy (methadone and buprenorphine) and universal access to antiretroviral therapy. All of this must occur on a scale that can impact the epidemic.