Publications

This report supports the proposed UNDP financed technical assistance intended to introduce the National AIDS Spending Assessment methodology to the National Advisory Committee (NACA). Further development, implementation and institutionalization of the NASA methodology is expected to be lead by the NACA in order to standardize the classification of HIV and AIDS expenditures among all stakeholders. It is projected that NACA’s analysis of the tracked expenditures will enable valuable information to be disclosed that will influence the strategic allocation of future resources to Fiji’s HIV/AIDS initiative. Data generated through NASA can also be used to measure the nation’s commitment and effort, which is an important component of the UNGASS Declaration, and therefore will also help Fiji to address some of the gaps that currently exist in its UNGASS reporting. This final report outlines the amount the Republic of the Fiji Islands spent on the HIV/AIDS initiative over the last two and a half years (2007-2009) from various local and external financing sources.

This report provides an evaluation of an 18-month quality improvement intervention supported by the USAID-funded Quality Assurance Project (QAP) and its successor, the Health Care Improvement (HCI) Project, in Thai Binh Province of Vietnam. The province, located in the Red River’s Delta in northern Vietnam, has 1.8 million population, an annual TB case load of 1600–1800 cases, and an cumulative number of 2188 HIV-infected cases. A number of activities to expand TB/HIV integration were carried out, including policy development; capacity building; maintaining the continuum of care; quality assurance of services; support for public and private partnerships; strengthening the monitoring and evaluation system; and conducting information, education, and communication activities.

Despite a current low HIV prevalence, there are concerns that Sri Lanka could face an impending HIV/ADIS epidemic in the future. As in other countries, the military is considered a vulnerable group in terms of HIV/AIDS. The primary objectives of this study were to assess the level of knowledge of HIV/AIDS in the Sri Lankan military and the extent to which personnel were engaged in risky sexual behaviours.

It has been yet another busy and eventful year for the Ministry as it continues to adapt to the challenges of an environment of continual changes. The Report attempts to highlight the Ministry’s performance in delivering services to the people of Fiji contributing to the targeted outcomes set out by the Government. The efforts, commitment and achievements by our staff are therefore reflected in the Report.

About one-fifth of the HIV infections detected in Bhutan are among young women and men between the ages of 15-24 years. Young people are at special risk for STIs including HIV because they lack information, skills, health services and support that they need to need to make informed choices. Furthermore, uniformed personnel have also been seen as at-risk groups as about 13 percent of HIV cases detected in Bhutan so far have been among the uniformed services.  

A seventh round behavioral and serological surveillance found that the HIV epidemic had remarkably increased to 7% among intravenous drug users (IDU) in Central Bangladesh, indicating the urgent need to increase prevention. The main purposed of this study were to find out, by collecting data and the necessary information from sero-surveillances, published reports, and articles, what the prevalence of HIV/AIDS is, and what the acquisition and transmission routes are. In addition, trends in HIV-related risk behaviors among recognized high risk groups were observed, and estimations and projections of HIV transmissions up to the year 2020 results reveal that Bangladesh is a low prevalence country which is turning into one with a concentrated epidemic due to the high HIV prevalance rate of HIV transmission, followed by female sex workers, clients of sex workers, and men who have sex with men. If the transmission rate continues to increase, the situation will be uncontrolled. Therefore, there is an urgent need for a comprehensive prevention program to control the spread of HIV.

The Federated States of Micronesia (FSM) consists of four major island groups forming the states of Kosrae, Pohnpei, Chuuk, and Yap. A total of 35 positive HIV cases were confirmed in FSM as of December 2007 (UNAIDS 2008), and limited data exist on the behavioral dimensions of HIV and STI transmission in FSM. Between 2006 and 2008, six SGS surveys were conducted in FSM across three of the four states (Yap, Pohnpei, Chuuk) in four different population groups (PNC Women, Police, Youth, and Outer Island Communities).

This report presents the findings of the second round of second generation surveillance (SGS) surveys conducted in the Solomon Islands in 2008. As in 2004-05, two population groups were surveyed: antenatal women and youth.

This report presents the findings of the first round of the Integrated Biological and Behavioral Surveillance Survey (IBBS) of wives of migrant laborers in West to Far-Western Nepal. This study is based on surveys of 400 spouses of those migrant laborers in the four districts of Achham, Doti, Kanchanpur, and Kailali who temporarily migrate or had migrated to India to work as laborers. The survey was conducted among the wives or widows of current or ex- labor migrants to India aged 16 years or over, whose spouse had spent at least three months in India and who had returned to Nepal at least once in the last three years. The survey measured the prevalence of HIV among the study population.

This report presents the findings of the second round of Second Generation Surveillance (SGS) surveys conducted in Kiribati in 2008. The first round of SGS was conducted 2004-05 and included two population groups, Antenatal women and Seafarers. In 2008, surveillance included a sexually transmitted infection (STI) prevalence survey (SPS) survey of Antenatal women, Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) surveillance surveys (HSS ) of Seafarers and Policemen and a behavioural surveillance survey (BSS) for youth.