God, AIDS, Africa & HOPE

UNAIDS strategy goal by 2015:

• Countries with punitive laws and practices around HIV transmission, sex work, drug use or homosexuality that block effective responses reduced by half.

Punitive laws, polices, practices, stigma and discrimination can block effective responses to HIV by driving people away from HIV services. They can reduce an individual’s ability to avoid HIV as well as impact people living with HIV. In 2010, 71% of countries have laws prohibiting discrimination against people living with HIV. Also 2010, 67% of countries reported policies or laws that impede access to HIV services by certain populations, including minors. Problematic laws—and law enforcement—include those that restrict women’s equal access to education, employment, property, credit or divorce; law enforcement that can drive sex workers, men who have sex with men and people who use drugs underground and away from HIV services; and overly broad laws on the criminalization of HIV transmission. UNAIDS calls for protective laws and measures to ensure that all people benefit from HIV programmes and have access to justice, regardless of health status, gender, sexual orientation, drug use or sex work. Significant expansion of programmes that empower civil society to know and demand their rights is needed. These include programmes to reduce HIV-related stigma and discrimination, provide legal aid and legal literacy, reform laws, train police on non-discrimination, reach out to vulnerable populations, address violence against women and train health-care workers on non-discrimination, informed consent and confidentiality.

more info: www.unaids.org

UNAIDS strategy goal by 2015:

• People living with HIV and households affected by HIV are addressed in all national social protection strategies and have access to essential care and support.

Enhanced social protection can help reduce an individual’s chance of becoming infected with HIV (susceptibility) and reduce the likelihood that HIV will have damaging effects on individuals, households and communities (vulnerability). It can also help to ensure that efforts to expand universal access to HIV prevention, treatment, care and support will reach the most difficult to reach. UNAIDS calls for ensuring existing social protection mechanisms include people living with HIV, populations at higher risk, vulnerable populations and households in order that they can access the services and entitlements that they need. Also, UNAIDS calls for promoting policies and programmes that are inclusive, non-stigmatizing and non-discriminatory, and promote equity.

more info: www.unaids.org

UNAIDS strategy goal by 2015:

• TB deaths among people living with HIV reduced by half.

Tuberculosis (TB) is a leading cause of illness and death for people living with HIV—about one in five of the world’s 1.8 million AIDS-related deaths in 2009 was associated with TB. The majority of people living with HIV and TB are in sub-Saharan Africa. TB places a heavy burden on people living with HIV including significant illness that requires at a minimum six months of treatment, with the associated economic costs to the individual, his or her family and the health-care system. UNAIDS calls for effectively integrating delivery of services for HIV and tuberculosis, nutritional support in all settings, as well as continued innovation of TB diagnostic and treatments options.

more info: www.unaids.org

UNAIDS strategy goal by 2015:

• Universal access to antiretroviral therapy for people living with HIV who are eligible for treatment.

More than 5.2 million people living with HIV are receiving HIV treatment. Increased access to treatment has made an extraordinary impact on HIV-related mortality, enabling people to lead healthy lives. However, more than 10 million people living with HIV are still waiting for life-saving treatment. UNAIDS calls for Treatment 2.0 to simplify the way HIV treatment is currently provided and to scale up access to life-saving medicines. Also needed, scaling up treatment coverage, bridging the gap between sexual and reproductive health and HIV, integrating nutritional support within treatment programmes, and increasing the number of skilled and equipped health workers.

more info: www.unaids.org

UNAIDS strategy goal by 2015:

• All new HIV infections prevented among people who use drugs.

Globally, there are an estimated three million people who inject drugs also living with HIV—with nearly 13 million more at risk of HIV infection. Access to HIV prevention services, including harm-reduction programmes has increased but not at the required levels. In 2009 the median coverage of HIV prevention services was 32%.  It is estimated that on average globally fewer than two clean needles are provided per month per person who injects drugs, there are about eight people in opioid substitution treatment for every 100 people who inject drugs. According to WHO, UNODC and UNAIDS target-setting guidelines, the availability of fewer than 100 syringes per person who injects drugs per year is considered low. Few countries have data on HIV treatment coverage for people living with HIV who inject drugs, 14 countries treat 5% or fewer and in only nine countries does treatment reach more than 10% of people living with HIV who inject drugs. UNAIDS calls for scaling up comprehensive, evidence informed and human-rights-based programmes accessible to all people who inject drugs (i.e. attending to harm reduction alongside demand reduction), including programmes to reduce hepatitis co-infection, increasing access to HIV treatment, and ensuring legal and policy frameworks serve HIV prevention efforts.

more info: www.unaids.org