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HIV and AIDS
- Our commitment
- Impact chart
- Our main achievements in 2011
- Our main achievements in 2010
- Our main achievements in 2009
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 2011
- At a regional level, UNODC has continued to help ensure that data on HIV prevalence and access to core HIV services (particularly among its core target group of people who use drugs) is generated, analysed and shared. This information is being used to inform policy making and programmatic responses at both regional and national levels.
- In Myanmar, UNODC has made a direct contribution to increasing access to and coverage of HIV prevention and harm reduction services for drug users and their sexual partners. In 2011, UNODC supported services reached a total of 2,347 individual clients with a package of prevention and care services. According to reports by the National AIDS Programme (NAP) these services have directly contributed to declining HIV prevalence among people who inject drugs in the project areas.
- In Lao PDR, the linkage between injecting drug use and HIV was only officially accepted in 2010 based on the findings of a Rapid Appraisal and Response survey supported by UNODC. Subsequent to this shift in understanding and policy, and following a high-level visit to Viet Nam in 2011 by senior government officials from Lao PDR, the piloting of needle and syringe programmes began in two pilot provinces in that country.
- In Indonesia, a series of fact-finding missions went to Australia to review the policy, public and community sector response to drug dependence. The Head of the National Narcotics Bureau (BNN) led the first of these missions and a key outcome has been the expansion of treatment approaches to be supported by BNN and an increase in the role of community-based treatment services.
- In Indonesia, data on HIV and syphilis prevalence and risk behavior in 24 prisons and detention centres became available through a national study supported by UNODC. The study findings are now being used to improve harm reduction and treatment services in Indonesian prisons.
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.