Publications

This third edition of the Unitaid/WHO market and technology landscape: HIV rapid diagnostic tests for self-testing report summarizes the current HIV testing gap; the challenges facing efforts to scale up; and the potential role HIV self-testing (HIVST) could play to achieve the United Nation’s 90-90-90 targets. In particular, the report synthesises the existing and emerging market demand and supply of kits.

This is the fifteenth Report on Tuberculosis (TB) situation of SAARC Region which is being published by SAARC Tuberculosis and HIV/AIDS Centre (STAC) in a series that started in 2003, which includes a compilation of regional and country-specific achievements, challenges and plans. The main purpose of the report is to provide a comprehensive and up-to-date assessment of the TB epidemic and progress made in TB care and control at Global, SAARC Region and Member States level.

This IBBS Survey among FSWs (FSWs) in Kathmandu Valley is the sixth round of survey. It was conducted first time in 2004. The survey was undertaken primarily to track the trend of HIV infection, to access information about the safe sex practices, sexual behavioral, knowledge of HIV and STI, explore the association between risk behaviors and infections with HIV or STI. More specifically, the survey was conducted to collect socio-demographic characteristics; alcohol and drug use and needle sharing behaviors; the experience of stigma, discrimination and physical, sexual and other forms of violence; and exposure to HIV and AIDs program.

HIV in Nepal is characterized as a concentrated epidemic. Nepal is categorized as a country facing concentrated HIV epidemic. IBBS surveys have been successfully conducted in various rounds in Nepal for the last about a decade among key populations at higher risk for HIV. This is the first round of IBBS surveys among MSM/TG of Pokhara Valley and carried out under the leadership of National Center for AIDS and STD Control (NCASC) with financial and technical support from Save the Children-Global Fund.

This is the seventh round of Integrated Biological and Behavioral Surveillance (IBBS) survey conducted among People Who Inject Drugs (PWID) in Kathmandu Valley. The survey was undertaken primarily to track the trend of HIV, Hepatitis B (HBV), Hepatitis C (HCV) and Syphilis prevalence and to understand the associated risky sexual behaviors among the PWID of Kathmandu Valley.

Contraceptive prevalence, a measure that represents the proportion of women who currently use a contraceptive method, does not take into account the duration or interruption of use, or changes in method, which have an impact on the effectiveness of contraceptive use. Using data from the 2014 Cambodia Demographic and Health survey, this study estimated rates of contraceptive discontinuation, failure, and switching, including reasons for discontinuation, among married women age 15-49, and estimated the associations with selected socioeconomic and demographic characteristics. The study found that one in every four women surveyed discontinued their contraceptive method during the first year of use. The two most commonly cited reasons for discontinuation were desire to become pregnant and health concerns with the method, while cost or access were rarely reported as reasons for discontinuation.

This report explores issues related to fertility among young women age 15-19 and to abortion among women age 15-49 in Cambodia, based on two Demographic and Health Surveys (DHS) conducted in 2010 and 2014. In 2014, approximately one in every eight young Cambodian women age 15-19 either already had a live birth or were currently pregnant with their first child. Teenage fertility increased from 8% in 2010 to 12% in 2014. In general, teenage fertility in Cambodia rises with increasing age, lower household wealth, and lower levels of education. 

The purpose of this information note is to support civil society and community groups to design and include community systems strengthening interventions and community-based monitoring activities in funding requests during the 2017-2019 Global Fund funding cycle. This information will be of interest to community groups, key population networks, country coordination mechanism (CCM) members, ministries of health, disease program managers, and health service providers.

This report reflects a new era for the UN. It offers practical solutions to transforming the way the Joint Programme works. As the UN charts out its reform agenda, this report provides the first organizational effort to translate the directions set out in the Quadrennial Comprehensive Policy Review into specific, actionable recommendations on financing, joint working, and accountability. But these recommendations should not stop at the door of the Joint Programme, we encourage Member States as well as our colleagues across the UN Development system to consider these recommendations as they take their own steps towards organizational repositioning, as together, we build a UN fit for purpose in leading the world to achieve the vision of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, including to leave no one behind.

TB is preventable and completely curable–yet about 710 000 people died of TB in 2015. Incomplete treatment can lead to drug-resistant TB over 200 000 people got DR-TB in 2015. Malnutrition, smoking and diabetes aggravate TB. TB thrives in poverty. It also creates poverty; the poor have a five-time higher chance of getting TB. This is the second SEAR TB Report as we take first steps into the post 2015 era of the SDGs. In 2015, there was an estimated 4.74 million incidence of TB in the SEA Region, including HIV+TB co-infection. The total number of new cases notified to National TB programmes in the Region were around 2.65 million in appear staggering despite a reasonably good performance. Three countries that are poised well to eliminating TB by 2030 are Maldives, Bhutan and Sri Lanka. Nepal too is doing well despite the twin challenges of its mountainous terrain and coping with a major natural disaster. Timor-Leste, though small in terms of absolute TB numbers, faces a major challenge in bringing down its incidence rate.