Publications

A baseline study of injecting drug users (IDUs) in Lahore, undertaken in January and February, 1999, by UNDCP and UNAIDS, revealed an alarmingly high rate of infection by hepatitis C virus (HCV) among the study population. The study results suggest the potential for an even greater public health challenge in the form of an epidemic of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) once the virus enters this highly vulnerable population. In addition, there is the possibility of a more generalised HIV epidemic as a result of secondary transmission through sexual activity. The study results will have important implications for the formulation of Pakistan's strategies regarding drug abuse, especially among IDUs, and for the development of appropriate and effective plans for programmes of HIV/AIDS awareness and prevention.

In badly affected countries, the socioeconomic effect of this most destructive disease is measured in declining per capita incomes, shrinking profits in labour-intensive businesses, loss of productivity from cultivated land, and deteriorating public services such as health, welfare and education, as key staff fall ill and die. AIDS undermines the future, too, as families and communities struggle with the burdens of sick people and orphaned children, building up debts and frequently having to remove children from school because of lack of funds or because the labour of even the littlest is needed to help the family survive.

Since the first case of HIV infection was diagnosed in Brunei Darussalam in 1986, HIV prevalence has remained low. A cumulative total of 498 HIV cases, including 12 AIDS cases, had been reported by the end of July 1999. The reported number of HIV/AIDS cases has decreased since 1994.

The Ho Chi Minh City (HCMC) AIDS Committee is concerned about providing prevention and sexually transmitted disease (STD) services to increasing numbers of female sex workers (FSWs). We interviewed 250 non-brothel-based FSWs in HCMC in 1997, including 100 detained women at a rehabilitation center, and 150 women soliciting on the street (low income) and in bars (middle income). The majority of women came from provinces bordering Cambodia.

The Behavioral Surveillance Survey (BSS) for HIV prevention programs is based on serologic sentinel surveillance survey methods used in many countries to detect the emergence of HIV and monitor epidemic trends. The main purpose of the BSS is to determine AIDS related behaviors in the project area of AIDSCAP and measure the behavioral change over time. The project area includes highway routes and major urban areas of the Terai covering 16 districts stretching from Bhairawa in the west (Rupendehi) to Kakadbhitta (Jhapa) in the east.

Simple straight forward models like EPI model to complicated mixing pattern models were evolved by WHO and others to project AIDS cases and to estimate new HIV infections. These models are easy to apply, but they are having their own limitations when applied for Indian data. In this paper an attempt has been made to understand the adult mortality due to HIV/AIDS indirectly through cause specific death rates.

This document aims to describe the contribution behavioural data can make to the planning, execution, and monitoring of HIV prevention activities. It considers the available tools and recommends a minimum data collection package that varies according to the stage a country has reached in its HIV epidemic. The purpose of this document is to guide national programmes in setting up efficient behavioural assessment and monitoring programmes to assist them in programme design, direction, and evaluation.

This document presents valuable data about HIV/AIDS-related knowledge, attitudes, and behaviors, based on the behavioral surveillance surveys conducted in Indonesia in 1996, 1997 and 1998.

Opportunistic diseases in a person with HIV are the products of two things: the person's lack of immune defenses caused by the virus, and the presence of microbes and other pathogens in our everyday environment. Effective intervention against opportunistic diseases requires not only the appropriate drug or other medications for a given medical condition, but also the infrastructure necessary to diagnose the condition, monitor the intervention, and counsel patients. As well, use of drugs and tests must be supported by proper storage, handling and administrative procedures.

Military personnel are a population group at special risk of exposure to sexually transmitted diseases (STDs), including HIV. In peace time, STD infection rates among armed forces are generally 2 to 5 times higher than in civilian populations; in time of conflict the difference can be 50 times higher or more. Paradoxically — and fortunately — strong traditions of organization and discipline give the military significant advantages if they move decisively against HIV/AIDS. Recently, comparative studies of sexual behaviour in France, the UK and the USA showed that military personnel (both career and conscripted personnel) have a much higher risk of HIV infection than groups of equivalent age/sex in the civilian population. Armed forces in other parts of the world reflect the same phenomenon. A 1995 estimate of HIV in Zimbabwe, for instance, places the infection rate for the armed forces at 3 to 4 times higher than the level in the civilian population.