Publications

UNITAID’s Strategy 2013-2016 guides the organization’s response to HIV/AIDS, malaria and TB. In total, these global epidemics kill almost 4 million people every year. Forward looking and flexible, UNITAID collects intelligence on product markets for these diseases in order to inform its investments, which are implemented by the world’s top development organizations.

As agents of justice, it is critical that members of the judiciary are empowered with up-to-date knowledge and understanding of the science of HIV transmission, prevention, treatment, care and support; epidemiological developments; and the evolving roles of the law and the judiciary in HIV responses. Enhancing the capacity of the judiciary to address HIV-related legal and human rights issues is a vital component of creating enabling legal environments that support eff ective national HIV responses. Building on the work of the Global Commission on HIV and the Law, The Compendium of Judgments, HIV, Human Rights and the Law, is a collation of progressive jurisprudence on HIV-related matters that highlights how the law has been used to protect individual rights. The compendium presents a user-friendly compilation of judgments from different national and regional jurisdictions.

The Asia-Pacific region as a whole has had considerable success with the MDGs, particularly in reducing levels of poverty. Nevertheless, the region is off track when it comes to hunger, health and sanitation – and even in areas such as poverty a number of countries are lagging some way behind. After the target date of 2015, there will therefore be a significant ‘unfinished agenda’. The region also faces many emerging threats including rising inequality and unplanned urbanization, along with climate change and environmental pressures such as pollution and water scarcity. This report presents some perspectives on the post-2015 development agenda as part of the system-wide discussion initiated by the Secretary-General. Being much less locked into traditional development pathways, Asia and the Pacific region has a clear window of opportunity to foster change. The perspectives and aspirations of this region for a new United Nations Development Agenda beyond 2015 should be of much interest to the global community.

This report is a guide for policymakers, treatment providers and advocates interested in learning more about laboratory-based and point-of-care viral load HIV diagnostic products, and point-of-care CD4 HIV diagnostic products. The report includes: information on how routine viral load (VL) monitoring improves HIV treatment outcomes; information on why the use of VL monitoring is particularly important for confirming treatment failure and for ensuring prevention of mother-to-child transmission of HIV (PMTCT); decision guide for purchasers, and information on how to evaluate the use of point-of-care (POC) and lab-based technologies in different contexts; technical specifications and pricing information for 13 diagnostic tools.

The SAARC region has a low level of HIV infection, but the sheer numbers of people living with HIV (PLHIV) is quite high, estimated at 2.57 million, with the largest burden shared by three countries: India 2.4 million, Pakistan 98,000, and Nepal 64,000. The epidemic is concentrated in certain geographical pockets (six states of India, large cities of Pakistan, and large cities and bordering districts of Nepal) and among key affected population, such as sex workers, men who have sex with men (MSM), people who inject drugs (PWID), and transgender people. The key commitment of the First SAARC Strategy was to urgently scale-up responses towards achieving the goal of universal access to comprehensive prevention, treatment, care and support by 2010. Though there have been significant improvements, these have not been uniform across all countries and there are pockets where HIV prevalence is on the increase. The current strategy is an effort to strengthen the regional responses based on lessons learned from the outcomes of the first SAARC Strategy on HIV/AIDS.

This report was commissioned by the International Drug Policy Consortium (IDPC), with the support of Australian Aid, for the purpose of developing a better understanding of drug policy advocacy activity in 10 Asian countries: Cambodia, China, India, Indonesia, Lao PDR, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Thailand, and Vietnam. It aims to achieve three goals:

• Identify organisations engaged in harm reduction and drug policy advocacy
• Identify gaps and challenges in harm reduction and drug policy advocacy that remain to be addressed
• Develop recommendations for prioritising new activities in harm reduction and drug policy advocacy

Pacific Island countries and territories (PICTs) are diverse; political regimes, cultural norms and languages vary widely. The forms of sex work undertaken across the Pacific are as diverse as the social, economic and political contexts in which they are situated. Reliable information on sex work in PICTs is fragmented and incomplete. However, characteristic forms of sex work include: paid sex with seafarers, women boarding boats, and the provision of sex to affluent locals, tourists, business travellers or migrant workers. Sex work typically occurs around ports and transit hubs, in development or construction enclaves and near military installations. Most sex work is informally organised and sex workers operate independently, although in Guam and Palau sex work is managed from within other entertainment establishments. Significant levels of sex work have been documented in Port Moresby, Honiara, Suva, Guam and Saipan, but various forms of sex work take place throughout the region.

It is well known that without sufficient street networks provision of basic services is virtually impossible. Recognizing the importance of the urban form, in 2004 UN-Habitat introduced the Monitoring Urban Inequities Programme (MUIP) that aims to collect and analyze crucial information on the layout and planning of cities. Under the MUIP, a community profile was designed in association with other modules of an Urban Inequity Survey (UIS). The community profile, supported by GIS, provides crucial information on the urban form, including the street network as a key element of public space. It also collects qualitative information through focus groups that reflect people’s opinions on infrastructure, social networks, security, etc.

Before the scale-up of the international response to the AIDS pandemic, community responses in developing countries played a crucial role in providing services and care for those affected. This study is the first comprehensive, mixed-method evaluation of the impact of that response. The evaluation finds that community response can be effective at increasing knowledge of HIV, promoting social empowerment, increasing access to and use of HIV services, and even decreasing HIV incidence, all through the effective mobilization of limited resources. By effectively engaging with this powerful community structure, future HIV and AIDS programs can ensure that communities continue to contribute to the global response to HIV and AIDS.

The HIV surveillance system in Hong Kong comprises 5 main programmes to provide a detailed description of the local HIV/AIDS situation. They are (a) voluntary HIV/AIDS case-based reporting; (b) HIV prevalence surveys; (c) sexually transmitted infections (STI) caseload statistics; (d) behavioral studies; and (e) HIV-1 genotyping studies. The data is collected, analyzed and disseminated regularly by the surveillance team of Special Preventive Programme (SPP), Centre for Health Protection (CHP), Department of Health (DH). At present, the latest HIV/AIDS statistics are released at quarterly intervals at press media briefings and in electronic format (http://www.aids.gov.hk). Data from various sources are compiled annually and released in this report.