Publications

After the first detection of HIV/ AIDS in the country in 1987 the number of HIV infection has increased dramatically over the last eighteen years. At the end of 2002, HIV/AIDS epidemic in PNG was considered to have reached a generalized state. The total number of reported cases in 2002 was 1715 and the annual reported cases of HIV for 2003 and 2004 were 2299 and 2490 respectively. By June 2005 the number of reported cases had reached 1089 in that year. The cumulative total of HIV infection from 1987 to June 2005 was 12,341.

Adolescence is a critical period during which dramatic physical, physiological, emotional and behavioral changes take place quite suddenly. These changes coupled with the absence of authentic information to know, understand and appreciate them, cause anxiety among adolescents who may be pushed into courses of actions without having a chance to think fully of consequences.

The global AIDS response has steadily grown and gained momentum since UN Member States made a Declaration of Commitment on HIV/AIDS at the 2001 Special Session of the UN General Assembly. This momentum has occurred within wider efforts to place countries more firmly in command of their own development programmes. Based on these developments, UNAIDS is facilitating a multi-partner, country-driven effort to scale up towards Universal Access.

The first case of AIDS was identified in Indonesia in 1987 in a foreign male tourist. During the decade thereafter, the epidemic appeared to grow slowly, spreading primarily among men and almost exclusively through sexual transmission. In the mid-1990s, however, injecting drug use, which historically had been very limited in Indonesia, began to increase dramatically. Community workers who were aware of the phenomenon expressed concern about the threat of HIV in the growing population of injecting drug users (IDUs).

The HIV epidemic in the South-East Asia Region is a source of growing concern. An estimated 7.2 million people were living with HIV/AIDS at the end of 2006. Of these, 1.9 million were younger than 25 years of age, including 120,000 children. South-East Asia bears the second highest number of HIV-infected persons among all WHO Regions, behind sub-Saharan Africa. The meeting brought together senior representatives from the Ministry of Health, programme managers from national AIDS programmes as well as from reproductive health and adolescent health programmes, representatives from nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) and development partners to exchange information and provide a platform for technical and strategic discussions on scaling-up HIV prevention, care and treatment interventions.

Despite evidence establishing male-to-male sex as one of the driving forces of HIV transmission in the Asia and Pacific region, few strategic interventions address male-to-male and transgender sexualities and related HIV vulnerabilities. In recognition of the need for building and strengthening interventions addressing HIV related vulnerabilities of males who have sex with males (MSM) in the Region; the Male Sexual Health and HIV in Asia and the Pacific - International Consultation was organised in New Delhi, India from September 23-26, 2006, with the tagline “Risks and Responsibilities.” This regional consultation provided a space for dialogue, learning, networking, and skills building, towards enabling the expansion, strengthening and scaling up of strategies addressing sexual health and related HIV vulnerabilities in relation to males who have sex with males and transgender people. In addition, the consultation provided an opportunity to inform and develop strategic advocacy initiatives and deliberate on key policies related to these issues.

The main objective of this project is to strengthen the national policy and programmes on HIV/AIDS in Malaysia by assessing the impact of HIV/AIDS on people infected by the disease to provide an information base on PLHIV (People Living with HIV) and the families/communities affected.

Cervical cancer is the second most common cancer world-wide and is the most common cancer among women in developing countries. A comprehensive approach to cervical cancer screening and the recent advent of vaccines for oncogenic genotypes of HPV makes it the most preventable and treatable of all cancers. This meeting, HPV Vaccines, New Tools in the Prevention of Cervical Cancer and other HPV Disease in Asia and the Pacifi c, was a satellite meeting of the 3rd Asia Pacifi c Organisation for Cancer Prevention (APOCP) and International Union Against Cancer (UICC) Symposium, Empowering Cancer Prevention in the Asian Pacifi c. The satellite meeting brought together leading specialists in immunization, cancer prevention, and other disciplines who are essential to building consensus on programming for the prevention and early detection of cervical cancers.

In 2006 the Ministry of Health and provincial Health Offices in Tanah Papua, in collaboration with the National/Local AIDS Commission, Statistics Indonesia (BPS), with support from the World Bank and USAID – FHI/ASA has completed Integrated Bio-Behavioral Surveillance (IBBS 2006) in Tanah Papua (the Land of Papua) which sampled ten districts. IBBS 2006 is a population-based survey, and it was conducted between September-October 2006. The IBBS 2006 results showed that HIV prevalence among Tanah Papua population was 2.4 percent among population age group 15-49 years old which was higher compared to other parts of the country. The survey also showed that it was already widespread all over Tanah Papua.

This one year project (September 2004 - August 2005) was designed  to understand the sexual behavior of the general male population (aged 18-49 years) in Bangladesh and to compare the response rates to sensitive questions on sexual behavior.