UNAIDS Governing Board approves new policies to intensify HIV prevention

The Governing Board of the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) today approved more intensive policies to prevent the spread of HIV and said they could avert at least 29 million new infections by 2010.

In response to urgent requests from Member States, the UNAIDS Board, meeting in Geneva, agreed on a policy paper called "Intensifying HIV Prevention" which says the Programme will increase its assistance to governments and inter-governmental organizations for expanding HIV prevention programmes, document and coordinate best practices, and devise methods of measuring prevention trends.

At present, poor planning, inappropriate prioritization and inadequate training, combined with cultural, social and personal reluctance to discuss issues involving sex, sexuality and drug use, are some of the obstacles to scaling up HIV prevention and these bottlenecks have led to a major gap between the need and availability of HIV prevention services, it said.

Only one in five people needing HIV prevention methods have access to such services and only one in 10 people have been tested for HIV, the UNAIDS Board said.

All prevention programmes should be comprehensive in scope, based on evidence and must be fundamentally grounded in respect for human rights, including gender equality. They also should be adapted to local environments, sustainable at a scale and intensity to make a critical difference and be planned and implemented with input from affected communities, the Board said.

"Member States recognize the crucial need for intensified HIV prevention efforts. With 5 million new infections each year, it is only through a comprehensive and scaled-up approach that we will reverse the spread of HIV," said UNAIDS Executive Director Dr. Peter Piot.

Meanwhile, a new report co-authored by UNAIDS and the UN World Health Organization (WHO) and presented to the Seventh International Congress on AIDS in Asia and the Pacific (ICAAP) which opened today in Kobe, Japan, warned that the region risked having HIV spread from the most vulnerable groups into the general population despite recently stronger leadership in combating it.

"Low condom use, limited access to HIV testing, gender inequality, widespread injecting drug use and sex work are a dangerous cocktail that could provoke a rapid expansion of the epidemic," Dr. Piot said in a message to the congress. "If HIV prevention programmes are urgently scaled-up, 6 million HIV infections could be prevented in the next five years in the region. If Asian countries do not rise up to the challenge, then 12 million people will become newly infected."

In south and south-east Asia in 2003 the targeted HIV prevention programmes reached only 19 per cent of sex workers, 5 per cent of injecting drug users and 2 per cent of men who have sex with other men, the report says, while only 14 per cent of the 1.1 million people who need anti-retrovirals (ARVs) today receive it.

As part of the fight against AIDS in Asia, UNAIDS appointed a celebrated Pakistani musician, Salman Ahmad, the lead singer in rock band Junoon, as one of its Goodwill Ambassadors.

Mr. Ahmad, whose band is on a world tour, was being flown from the United States to London to take part in the "Live 8" concert tomorrow.

"We need to get the message out that poverty is major part of the spread of AIDS and we cannot turn our backs on this any longer," he said. "It's a great honour for Junoon to be part of one giant global-jukebox for the eradication of poverty and music is the most powerful force for positive change."