Publications

The government of Bangladesh respond to HIV and AIDS from the first case detected in 1989, GOB formed NAC, TAC and the AIDS policy. There are several policy documents developed to guide the national HIV and AIDS Program intervention. The goal of the 3rd national strategic plan for HIV and AIDS Response 2011-2015 is, to minimise the spread of HIV and minimize the impact of AIDS on the individual, family, community, and society. The National AIDS/STD Programme (NASP) is one of the wings of Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS) under the Ministry of Health & Family Welfare (MOHFW) responsible for coordinating with all stakeholders and development partners involved in HIV/AIDS programme activities throughout the country.

Child marriage is a human rights abuse. It constitutes a grave threat to young girls’ lives, health and future prospects. Marriage for girls can lead to complications related to pregnancy and childbirth, and in developing countries these are the main causes of death among 15–19 year-old girls. Girls who are married are also exposed to sexually transmitted infections, including HIV. For a girl, marriage can mean the end of her education, can set aside her chances of a vocation or career, and can steal from her foundational life choices. International conventions declare that child marriage is a violation of human rights because it denies girls the right to decide when and with whom to marry. This report is intended to help policymakers prevent this violation of girls’ rights. It summarizes available data and evidence, while offering advice on the thicket of issues involved, and suggests prioritized actions to reduce and eventually eliminate child marriage. 

The first National AIDS Control Programme (NACP) was launched in 1992 for prevention and control of HIV/AIDS in India. This was followed by NACP II in 1999 and NACP III in 2007. During different phases of the programme, the focus shifted from raising HIV/AIDS awareness to behaviour change, from a national response to a more decentralised response and to increasing involvement of NGOs and networks of people living with HIV/AIDS (PLHIV). Based on the lessons from NACP I and II, the government designed and implemented NACP III. NACP Phase-III (2007-2012) has the overall goal of halting and reversing the epidemic in India. 

The HIV/AIDS pandemic continues to have a devastating, though often invisible, impact on gay men and other men who have sex with men (MSM) around the world. In low and middle-income countries, MSM are 19 times more likely to be living with HIV than people in the general population and they represent an estimated 10 percent of new infections each year. Yet for decades the epidemic among MSM was officially ignored by governments, donors, and whole societies.

This report reviews the current technology landscape for HIV diagnostics, including (i) the algorithms and tests required in HIV/AIDS care and treatment, both before and after treatment initiation; (ii) the platforms used and price points of that testing; and (iii) the ways in which testing is delivered. With this information as background, the report then reviews the current technologies and diagnostic platforms in three key testing areas: CD4 and viral load testing for adults and children, as well as EID (including EID run on viral load platforms)—all of which are today typically accessed through sophisticated laboratory-based testing platforms, even in resourcelimited settings. The report describes the POC and near-POC CD4, viral load and EID platforms on the market and in the development pipeline, and considers the implications of the landscape, including what efficiencies might be achieved with respect to test algorithms, the cost of testing and decentralized service delivery.

Based on the experience from the previous reporting round in 2010, National AIDS programme, lead the data compilation and report writing process. A working group was formed to prepare the report. Data on the HIV epidemic in the Maldives is available in the form of case reports, among Maldivians, 15 cases of HIV had been identified via this method between 1991 and end of 2011. 11 of these people have died. Three out of the four people living with HIV in the Maldives are receiving antiretroviral treatment (ART), provided by the government. Among expatriate migrants, 257 cases had been identified as end of2009 (as a result of which they could not obtain a work permit / permit to stay and had to leave). In 2008, the first BBS was conducted in the Maldives. Data was collected on sexual behavior and drug injecting behaviors, showing wide range and closely interconnected sexual networks across survey groups.

Following new findings from recently published epidemiological studies, the World Health Organization (WHO) convened a technical consultation regarding hormonal contraception and HIV acquisition, progression and transmission. It was recognized that this issue was likely to be of particular concern in countries where women have a high lifetime risk of acquiring HIV, where hormonal contraceptives (especially progestogen-only injectable methods) constitute a large proportion of all modern methods used and where maternal mortality rates remain high.

Ten years after the landmark UN General Assembly Special Session on HIV/AIDS (UNGASS), the progress was reviewed at the 2011 UN General Assembly High Level Meeting on AIDS. A new Political Declaration on HIV/AIDS1 with new commitments and bold new targets was adopted. This report covers the progress made by the National AIDS Response (NAR) in Lao PDR in the two years period 2010-2011, against the commitments and targets of the 2011 Political Declaration.

The Ministry of Health and Population (MoHP) had assigned the process of leading the preparation and submission of the Nepal Country AIDS Response Progress Report 2012 to the National Centre for AIDS and STD Control (NCASC) in November 2011. The main objective of the report is to express the highest-level accountability for the political commitment for effectively responding to the HIV epidemic in Nepal. In early January 2012, NCASC/MoHP formed an Advisory Group (AG) and a Technical Working Team (TWT) with defined terms of reference (ToRs).

Based on the latest HIV estimates and projections released by the Philippine National AIDS Council (PNAC), the number of Filipinos living with HIV was estimated at 19,000 in 2011. Of this number, 82 percent are males. The number of new cases per year increased significantly from an estimated 600 cases in 2001 to more than 4,000 in 2011 (with 83 percent males). This trend, as reported in the 2010 Global Report on the AIDS Epidemic, placed the Philippines as one of seven countries that recorded more than 25 percent increase in new cases in the last decade.