UN, OPEC launch joint $4 million HIV/AIDS prevention project in Central Asia

The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) and the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) Fund for International Development today launched a $4 million project to improve HIV/AIDS prevention and treatment among drug users and prisoners in five Central Asian countries and Azerbaijan.

“Compared with other regions in the world, Central Asia is experiencing the fastest growth in HIV/AIDS, mainly among injecting drug users and in prison populations,” UNODC Executive Director Antonio Maria Costa said of the campaign which covers the Central Asian states of Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan.

“This project can help prevent a major HIV/AIDS epidemic in the region and I hope it will serve as a model for other regions. With UNODC's expertise in HIV/AIDS prevention among drug users and in prisons and the OPEC Fund's generous support, we will be able to work with the governments concerned in order to achieve sustainable results,” he added.

The number of drug abusers in the region has been increasing over the last decade and is now estimated at more than half a million. About 80 per cent of these inject opiates, mainly heroin. Injecting drug users account for 60 to 80 per cent of all HIV infections in the region.

The OPEC Fund has been an active partner in the global battle against HIV/AIDS since 2001. It has committed over $34 million in 14 joint projects with the sponsoring organizations of UNAIDS, the Joint UN Programme on HIV/AIDS, benefiting 78 countries.

UNODC and the Fund will contribute $2 million each over the next four years. Kazakhstan will donate an additional $1.2 million in kind.

HIV/AIDS specialists from UNODC will help governments to develop comprehensive national prevention and care programmes among drug users and prisoners.