The response to HIV/AIDS in the Asia Pacific region needs to work for marginalized people like sex workers, homosexuals, injecting drug users and women if it is to become more effective, says Executive Director of UNAIDS Michael Sidibe.

Sidibe has called for a transformation of the HIV/AIDS response in the region using a more people orientated approach, especially for marginalized groups.

He said 1,000 new HIV infections in Asia each day could be averted by reaching populations at higher risk and their partners - at a cost of less than half a US dollar per person.

In the lead-up to 9th International Congress on AIDS in Asia and the Pacific (ICAAP) that opened Sunday in Bali, Sidibe has released a statement titled “Hope to reality: transforming the Asia–Pacific AIDS response” aimed at increasing public awareness of the continuing fight against HIV/AIDS.

Vietnam has sent a large delegation of government officials, civil society organizations and people living with HIV to this forum, Nguyen Thi Bich Hue city, communications officer for the Joint UN Team on HIV told Thanh Nien.

Ministries and organizations of Vietnam making presentations at the conference include the HIV Prevention among Youth project of the Vietnam Ministry of Health, the Ministry of Education and Training, Vietnam Institute for Education Science and Vietnam Administration of HIV/AIDS Control.

There will be nearly 100 presentations by Vietnamese researchers and groups at the conference that is about empowering people and strengthening networks.

Legal changes needed

Sidibe said a key feature of the new approach would be “countries changing laws that criminalize consensual adult sexual behavior (including sex work) and drug use,” noting that there were some “punitive laws and policies that block effective responses to AIDS.”

He cited examples of positive changes in countries in the region such as India granting men who have sex with men (MSM) equality under the constitution, Indonesia providing more treatment rather than prison time for drug addicts, and New Zealand legalizing prostitution.

The changes in countries’ laws and policies were only the beginning as they would hopefully be the forerunner to societies and communities changing the “social norms that allow stigma and discrimination,” he said.

HIV transmission among intimate partners was another issue that needed a fresh approach, the UNAIDS director stressed.

Women were badly impacted by discriminatory laws and societal views in the region, as a large number of women were infected with HIV by their husbands, Sidibe said.

“In 2008, 35 percent of adults living with HIV in Asia were women, and most of them were in steady relationships.”

Hue said the ICAAP conference was one of the biggest conferences in the world so far on HIV/AIDS.

The conference which runs until August 13 is a very important event, because countries in the region are trying to reach the target set in 2001 of Universal Access to comprehensive HIV prevention, treatment, care and support by 2010, she said.

Key challenges for Vietnam

A fact-sheet put out by UNAIDS said Vietnam was on track to meet that target so long as it addressed some key challenges including stigma and discrimination, the lack of a true multisectoral response, limited access for key populations at higher risk, and lack of human resource capacity.

The 2008 document gauging the country’s progress toward universal access by next year showed that the target had already nearly been met regarding condom use by sex workers but there had been little or no progress in increasing HIV/AIDS awareness and knowledge since it reached about halfway in 2005.

Access to retroviral treatment (ART) increased six-fold between 2005 and 2008 but it was still only a third of the way there, it said.

The fact-sheet spelled out bad news for unborn babies of women with HIV/AIDS in Vietnam with 2008 figures showing the country had only achieved 20 percent of its target for prevention of mother to child transmission (PMTCT).

Reported by Michael S. Smith