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HIV and AIDS
Our commitment
The use of contaminated injecting equipment among injecting drug users is one of the major routes of HIV transmission in many countries, contributing up to 10 per cent f all HIV transmissions worldwide and to more than 30 per cent if sub-Saharan Africa is excluded.
In Asia, an estimated 3,000,000-4,000,000 people inject drugs.
In several countries in East Asia, a large proportion of reported HIV infections have been associated with injection drug use. Despite overall low rates of HIV, a high prevalence of HIV among people has been reported in Indonesia (57.1% of women and 52.1% of men), Thailand (38.7%), Myanmar (36.3%), Cambodia (24.4%), Malaysia (22.1%), Vietnam (18.4%) and China (9.3). Even countries that reported no HIV in this population during the 1990s, such as the Philippines, have since reported epidemic outbreaks among people who inject drugs.
The United Nations General Assembly's High-Level Meeting on AIDS in June 2011 adopted bold targets for 2015: to reduce the sexual transmission of HIV by half, cut HIV transmission among people who inject drugs by 50 per cent, provide treatment for 15 million people living with HIV, end stigma and discrimination, and close the AIDS funding gap.
UNODC, a co-sponsor of UNAIDS, and the UN family have embraced a new global vision: zero new HIV infections, zero discrimination and zero AIDS-related deaths, as detailed in the
UNAIDS Strategy for 2011-2015.
UNODC advocates and supports governments and civil society organisations to scale up access to a
comprehensive package of services for the prevention, treatment and care of HIV among people who inject drugs:
1. Needle and syringe programmes (NSPs)
2. Opioid substitution therapy (OST) and other drug dependence treatment
3. HIV testing and counselling (T&C)
4. Antiretroviral therapy (ART)
5. Prevention and treatment of sexually transmitted infections (STIs)
6. Condom programmes for IDUs and their sexual partners
7. Targeted information, education and communication (IEC) for IDUs and their sexual partners
8. Vaccination, diagnosis and treatment of viral hepatitis
9. Prevention, diagnosis and treatment of tuberculosis (TB).
These nine interventions are included in the comprehensive package because they have the greatest impact on HIV prevention and treatment. There is a wealth of scientific evidence supporting the efficacy of these interventions in preventing the spread of HIV in this population.
Our main achievements in 2010
- Finalization of a Strategy to Halt and Reverse the HIV Epidemic among People who Inject drugs in Asia and the Pacific 2010-2015, involving WHO, UNODC, UNAIDS, GFATM and ANPUD.
- In Myanmar, UNODC has made a direct contribution to increasing access for injecting drug users (IDUs) to treatment and harm reduction services. This occurs both at specific project sites and in terms of overall national coverage. According to national figures, IDUs accessing drop-in-centre (DIC) services increased by 14% in 2010 as compared with the same figure for 2008. National needle-syringe distribution also increased to more than 5 million from a figure of 3.5 million in 2008. There is a direct correlation between these results and UNODC operations through its two main HIV projects in country.
- Availability of up-to-date strategic information in the areas of national policies, financial and human resource availability and coverage of HIV prevention and treatment interventions for people who inject drugs in 15 countries in Asia. This has been made available through the Baseline Assessment of Policies, Resources and Services for People who Inject Drugs, a survey commissioned by the UN Regional Task Force on Injecting Drug Use and HIV/AIDS for Asia and the Pacific.
Our main achievements in 2009
- Design and implementation of the AusAID-funded HIV/AIDS Asian Regional Programme (HAARP) in Myanmar and Lao PDR.
- Support to the development of an opioid substitution treatment programme in Cambodia.
- Provision of recommendations to Chinese authorities on an effective response by law enforcement to HIV/AIDS in closed settings and among injecting drug users.
- Improved access to HIV/AIDS treatment services in four provinces in the northwest of Viet Nam.
- Development and dissemination of strategic information on scaling-up effective responses to HIV.
- Monitoring progress towards universal access, specifically the extent to which opioid substitution therapy and needle/syringe programmes are available in 15 countries in Asia.