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- 2011 Political Declaration: Targets and elimination commitments
- Reducing sexual transmission
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- 2011 Political Declaration: Targets and elimination commitments
More feature stories on injecting drug use
- UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon visits methadone clinic in Cambodia
- In a recent visit to the first methadone clinic in Cambodia, United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon praised government authorities and health workers for their efforts to reduce HIV infection and drug-related harm among injecting drug users. Launched in July 2010, the clinic has reached, to date, a total of 61 patients.
- Country spotlight Kazakhstan: ‘Funding and planning a key priority for response’
- Maksut Karimovitch Kulzhanov, the head of Kazakhstan’s Public Health Institute and representative for Eastern Europe on the Board of The Global Fund, shares his views on Kazakhstan’s progress towards MDG 6.
- UNODC: humane and effective drug dependence treatment
- Detention of HIV positive drug users is not treatment for their dependence. Drug dependence is a health disorder and punishment is not the appropriate response. This was the key message contained in a UNODC discussion paper launched at the XVIII AIDS Conference in Vienna today.
- International conference on harm reduction in Liverpool
- Harm Reduction 2010, the 21st International conference organized by the International Harm Reduction Association is taking place in Liverpool, England from 25 – 29 April 2010. Under the theme ‘Harm Reduction: The Next Generation’, the conference has attracted around 1400 delegates from around 80 countries to share knowledge, network and promote evidence-based best practices in the field of reducing harms from drugs and alcohol.
- UNODC project provides cross-border HIV services to Afghan injecting drug users
- Providing comprehensive HIV services for injecting drug users is critical to an effective HIV response. In recognition of this, the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) has begun to support the implementation of an initiative to make services accessible to Afghan refugees who use drugs in Iran and Pakistan, and also to Afghan drug users who have returned home.
- HIV epidemic in Eastern Europe will be highlighted at Vienna AIDS conference
- The rapidly growing AIDS epidemic in Eastern Europe, fuelled primarily by unsafe injecting drug use, will be under the spotlight at the VIII International AIDS Conference (AIDS 2010), to be held in Vienna in July.
- UNICEF: Helping Ukraine’s most-at-risk young people
- Ukraine is the European country which bears the highest burden of HIV with just over 1.6 percent of the adult population estimated to be living with the virus. Among the most affected groups are young people who engage in high risk behaviour such as injecting drug use and sex work. Many of these young people live on the streets. The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) in Ukraine aims to give vulnerable young people the tools to protect themselves against HIV.
- Call for urgent action to improve coverage of HIV services for injecting drug users
- The fifty-third session of the Commission on Narcotic Drugs (CND)—the central policy-making body of the United Nations in drug related matters—is running in Vienna until 12 March 2010. A new report by the Reference Group to the UN system on HIV and Injecting Drug Use shows that the coverage of effective interventions remains far short of what is needed.
- Protecting drug users from becoming infected with HIV in Lithuania
- The pioneering Vilnius Centre for Addictive Disorders in Lithuania is the focus of the second Dispatch from the Field, a web series designed to highlight the World Health Organization’s work at country level.
- Lack of resources could undermine gains made in the HIV response in Pakistan
- Pakistan’s capacity to effectively respond to the HIV epidemic could be hindered due to the lack of resources to implement its revised National Strategic Framework. The framework, endorsed by partners involved in the response, provides evidence-based strategic direction to urgently address the increasing levels of HIV infection amongst injecting drug users (IDUs) and other populations through sexual transmission and avoid a spillover to the general population.
- Spotlight on the Middle East and North Africa Region
- The HIV epidemic in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region, while seldom highlighted, is steadily growing. In 2008 there were an estimated 310 000 people living with HIV, up from 200 000 in 2001. In that same year, approximately 35 000 people became newly infected with HIV in the region.
- UN Office on Drugs and Crime tackles HIV in prisons
- In most countries around the world there is a higher prevalence of HIV among prisoners than in the general population. This is due to a number of factors including the relative lack of knowledge about AIDS among prisoners, lack of access to protective measures, often violent conditions, overcrowding and inadequate health services. To help tackle this situation in Africa, UNODC, in partnership with WHO, the World Bank and UNAIDS has just launched the African HIV in Prisons Partnership Network (AHPPN).
- Michel Sidibé commends China’s progress in AIDS response
- UNAIDS Executive Director Michel Sidibé, during his visit to China, commended the People’s Republic of China on rises in domestic spending for HIV prevention and care in spite of a global financial crisis where other countries are weighing the risks of making cuts.
- Study tour of Police initiatives in India
- National police officers and National AIDS Programme heads from Cambodia, Maldives, Mongolia, Philippines, and Sri Lanka visited India last month to get a firsthand experience of law enforcement initiatives on interventions related to high risk populations.
- Advocating for HIV and Hepatitis C co-infection services for injecting drug users in India
- Loon Gangte is President of the Delhi Network of Positive People (DNP+) and a strong advocate of HIV and Hepatitis C (HCV) prevention. In an interview with the Regional South Asia office of the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, he talks about stigma and discrimination and explains why HIV and HCV co-infection, especially among injecting drug users, is an issue needing urgent intervention.
- Injecting drug users take central role in anti-stigma film
- The lives of injecting drug users and the HIV-related stigma and discrimination they face was one focus of the IX International Congress on AIDS in Asia and the Pacific as the film Suee (Needle) was launched by Response Beyond Borders, the Asian consortium on drug use HIV, AIDS and poverty.
- UNAIDS Cosponsors out in force for 9th ICAAP
- The 10 UNAIDS Cosponsors are presenting a strong showing as thousands of delegates converge in Bali, Indonesia, to share ideas, knowledge, best practices, lessons learned and research findings at the 9th International Congress on AIDS in Asia and the Pacific (ICAAP).
- UNODC and Brazil promote action on AIDS in prison settings
- Much more needs to be done to improve AIDS prevention, treatment and care services in Brazil’s prisons. This was the major conclusion emerging from the first national consultation on HIV in prison settings which took place in Brasilia between 31 March and 2 April.
- Joint action for results: UNAIDS outcome framework, 2009 – 2011
- The HIV organizational landscape has evolved and grown more complex over the past decade. UNAIDS, donors and civil society, including networks of people living with HIV, have rightly demanded greater clarity on the relationships between needs, financing, activities and outcomes. Also demanded is greater specificity about the role of UNAIDS and the Secretariat within the wider constellation of actors.
- OPINION: HIV and drugs: two epidemics - one combined strategy
- By Michel Sidibé, Executive Director, Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) Geneva, Switzerland