Asia

Despite moderate but noteworthy progress in rolling back the spread of HIV in several countires, stigma and discrimination remain major barriers to reversing the AIDS epidemic

133 kb pdf

AIDS & the Workplace: forging innovative business responses

Businesses throughout Africa, Asia, Latin America and the rest of the world are increasingly recognizing that HIV infection and AIDS can affect productivity and profitability

293 kb pdf

AIDS prevention Awareness-Asia

Table/graph

Asia’s Economic Promise in the Face of HIV/AIDS

Presentation that deals with 1) Potentially staggering macroeconomic effects, 2) Sizable economic impacts on vulnerable population groups 3) Vital to act now

62 kb pdf

Attitudes and Training of Health Care Workers on AIDS in Hong Kong

Health care workers' (HCW) avoidance of persons with HIV/AIDS has been a common concern both in the field of medical services and in the research literature. Such an attitude is not uncommon in Western countries The attitude is problematic because it undermines effective and non-discriminatory medical services, as well as being contradictory to the professional ethic of caring for AIDS patients. As a result, HCW's avoidance of AIDS patients will be detrimental to those who need the services. To assess and reduce the attitude among HCW in Hong Kong, the present study examines the plausible causes of the attitude of avoidance, including perceived susceptibility to HIV infection at work, lack of knowledge, training, and experience in caring for AIDS patients

Bangladesh-Human Rights Violation

Ravaging the Vulnerable—abuses against persons at High risk of HIV infection in Bangladesh

Pdf 1,253 kb

Challenging HIV Related Stigma & Discrimination in Asia

Pervasive stigma has surrounded HIV/AIDS since the beginning of the pandemic. In Southeast Asia, as elsewhere, it has been accompanied by discrimination, affecting transmission patterns and access to care and support

Pdf 146 kb

Concern over spread of HIV/AIDS

A symposium here on Wednesday has expressed concern over the

rising incidence of HIV/AIDS in Asian countries. It called for

implementing preventive measures and creating awareness

about the modes of transmission of the disease.

Declining HIV Gives Hope in Cambodia

Targeted Condom Promotion credited for fall in prevalence…

Cambodia is one of the rare countries where HIV/AIDS prevention

efforts clearly have led to a decline in HIV prevalence among

both high risk groups and the general population.

182 kb pdf

Disclosure of HIV Infection Among Asian/Pacific Islander American Women: Cultural Stigma and Support

Disclosure of HIV infection can lead to important social support that can mitigate the negative effects of stress However, disclosure can also result in rejection, discrimination, and stigma, making the decision to disclose a dilemma for individuals infected with HIV. This decision may be particularly difficult for Asian/Pacific Islander (A/PI) women, owing to HIV's association with topics considered "taboo" in Asian cultures

Drug Injection And HIV/AIDS in Asia

Drug injection is a strong driver of HIV infection in Asia, notably parts of China, Indonesia and Vietnam, where the steepest recent rises in HIV infections are seen among injecting drug users (IDUs). HIV prevalence rates in some IDU populations are extremelyhigh, and the sexual behaviour of IDUs can provide a gateway for HIV to spread among non-injectors.

Pdf 1355 kb

Drug Use, Prostitution Put Asia's Big Three at Risk

China, India and Indonesia - which are home to 40 percent of the world's population - now face HIV epidemics that could leap out of risk groups and into the mainstream,

Economic globalization and the rise of prostitution in Asia Pacific

Too often, the sex worker finds her freedom severely constrained. She has no control over her life, her future, not even the most basic sense of being in command of her body. She will never receive the opportunity to develop her potential as a human being. She will be branded as an outsider, a polluter, a bad woman, despite the fact the most of the time she is the victim of circumstances beyond her control.

Pdf 46 kb

Economy and Epidemic: Microfinance and HIV/AIDS in Asia

Asia faces a serious AIDS epidemic. In the year 2000, the number of new adult HIV infections per year in Asia exceeded that of Africa for the first time. This paper explores ways that Microfinance Institutions can assist their clients to cope with the impact of HIV/AIDS

976 kb pdf

EDITORIAL: Hepatitis C victims sue

The tale is tragic and depressing: It is the story of people who contracted a life-threatening illness through medical treatment.

Emerging Reproductive health issues Among Adolescents in Asia

The study examined the existing research findings on adolescent reproductive health issues and their policy implications in the Asian nations. As a result of significant delays in age at marriage, among both girls and boys, and falling age at menarche, the period during which premarital sex can take place is getting longer. Although the mean age at marriage is increasing, the mean age at first intercourse is declining.

91 kb pdf

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Epidemics-Philippines

This provisional report, coauthored by the MAP Manila Symposium participants and produced in some 24 hours, reflects a consensus of the analysis, determinations, projections and recommendations brought forward during the symposium. Its aim is to provide information that can be used by international as well as local bodies to briefly review the most important aspects of the history of the HIV/AIDS epidemics in the Asia-Pacific region to date, recognize the current status of and trends within these epidemics, and take immediate action to affect the course of these epidemics in the future.

Five Myths about the HIV Epidemic in Asia

It is widely recognised that the huge population sizes of many Asian countries mean that although national HIV prevalence levels are still very low, very large absolute numbers of people are being infected each year with HIV. Urgent responses are required; the effective responses by countries such as Thailand and Cambodia have shown how much can be done. As implementers who have worked with HIV/AIDS programmes in several countries in the region, we recognise the public health and welfare costs of the epidemic in Asia, and we respond to the need to “act now”. We are concerned, however, about a number of misinformed beliefs, or myths, about the epidemic—myths that are widely circulating in Asia, disseminated in both public and professional discourse, and often dominating policy and political debate. We believe that these myths, if allowed to underpin and influence policy and programming and guide immediate action, have the potential to seriously jeopardise exactly the kind of focused, coherent, evidence-based programme being called for in Asia and the Pacific

HIV in Asia: Act now or pay later, groups warn

One report, by the Joint United Nations Program on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) and the Asian Development Bank (ADB), entitled “Asia Pacific’s Opportunity: Investing to Avert an HIV/AIDS Crisis,” found that if prompt action is not taken in Asia by the end of the decade, 10 million additional people could acquire HIV, according to a statement.

HIV/AIDS Epidemics Expand Rapidly in Asia

The rapid spread of HIV/AIDS epidemics in Asia, illustrated by dramatic increases in new infections in China, Thailand, and Vietnam over the past year, poses particularly worrisome challenges for the international health community.

HIV/AIDS in Asia

The HIV/AIDS epidemic began relatively late in Asia, and up until now, HIV infections have not reached the high levels observed in some other parts of the world. Yet behavioral patterns that increase the risk of HIV transmission-such as unprotected sex with multiple partners and needle sharing among injecting drug users-are not uncommon in many Asian societies.

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HIV/AIDS IN ASIA AND THE PACIFIC REGION

Experiences in the region have shown that intervention activities can successfully bring about reductions in HIV prevalence, provided they are combined with highlevel political commitment and leadership. The priority is to implement HIV interventions among those sections of the population with high-risk behaviour, such as sex workers and their clients, injecting drug users, and migrant workers. In Thailand and Cambodia, condom promotion activities have brought about behavioural changes and a subsequent reduction in HIV prevalence and incidence – a major achievement. There are, however, still many areas of concern. Interventions are needed urgently to prevent HIV caused by injecting drug use and high-risk sexual behaviour and to scale up the coverage of these interventions in all countries so that they have a nationwide impact on HIV prevalence.

Pdf 1433 kb

HIV and AIDS: The Global Inter-Connection STRUGGLING WITH CONTRADICTIONS

This social history has resulted in a double standard and is responsible for many of the contradictions that pervade Filipino life. These contradictions manifest and represent a distinct aspect of the national personality. Youngsters are torn between the family's strict moral codes and peer group pressure to break sexual taboos. As a rite of passage, groups of friends commonly arrange for boys to lose their virginity in brothels. Marriage is extolled as the social ideal, yet married men regularly seek extra-marital sex. Sex work is regularly denounced and blamed on the American military and other foreigners. Yet, in one study, female sex workers said that 75 per cent of their clients were local married men

Homemakers at High Risk for AIDS

The increasing feminization of AIDS in the Asia Pacific region has been highlighted at the regional congress where a new report by UNAIDS revealed that the number of women living with HIV in the region has increased by 20 percent since 2002 to around 2.3 million and that AIDS has claimed some 540,000 lives in 2004.

Mapping HIV/AIDS Service Provision for Most At-Risk and Vulnerable Populations

(Large report-increase download time)

In Southeast Asia, there is a narrow window of opportunity to prevent AIDS from having a more severe impact on the region. Two decades of experience have demonstrated that successfully reducing the number of new HIV infections and providing support to those already infected requires focusing prevention and care efforts on those most at risk. It requires implementing wideranging programs and addressing the economic, social, and structural conditions which facilitate risk. Achieving success also entails strengthening human capacity and increasing and maximizing financial resources. Those countries and regions that have chosen to provide prevention services on a large scale to those most in need have been able to turn their epidemics around and, in some instances, significantly delay the onset of a future epidemic.

Pdf 2760 kb

Meeting-challenge

Meeting the HIV/AIDS challenge to food security-the role of labour saving technologies in farm-households

461 kb pdf

Metaphors of AIDS from around Asia

A variety of metaphors were expressed in response to open comments about attitudes to people with HIV and AIDS in surveys conducted in Australia, Hong Kong, India, Israel, Japan, New Zealand, the Philippines, Russia, Singapore and Thailand. A keyword analysis of the negative comments revealed some differences in the use of words which may reveal different societal attitudes. The keywords chosen were: deserve/serve/ask for, fruit, fault, punish, sin, God, ethic, moral, responsibility, promiscuous/promiscuity, loose, prostitution, homosexual/gay, drug/needle, and innocent.

Monitoring the AIDS pandemic: The Status and Trends of the HIV/AIDS/STD Epidemics in Asia and the Pacific

Because a large percentage of the world's population resides in the Asia-Pacific region, the symposium held in Manila was important in enabling MAP to focus strategically on the evolving HIV/AIDS and sexually transmitted disease (STD) epidemics in the Asian and Pacific countries, fuse current knowledge, identify gaps therein and determine topical and geographical areas for action

MSM, HIV/AIDS and Human Rights in South Asia

Power Point Presentation

49 kb

Nun or prostitute? Tibet's women face few choices

There are few choices for women in Tibet-if you are single you can either become a nun or prostitute.

Opioid Substitution Therapy in Selected Countries of Eastern Europe and Central Asia

Until the mid-1990s, opioid use was rare in the post-Soviet countries of Eastern Europe and Central Asia. Opium-based drugs were generally homemade concoctions prepared from the opium poppy, usually injected intravenously. Some users used medical opioids, most commonly morphine, omnipon and codeine. Between 1995 and 1997 the black market was flooded with cheaper heroin, making it available to many lower-income youth. Opioid users now represent 80-90% of the registered drug users seeking medical care.

Pdf 183 kb

Opioid Substitution Therapy: The missing link to curbing HIV in Eastern Europe and Central Asia

An estimated 3.7 million people in EECA inject drugs, the vast majority of whom are dependent on heroin or related opioid drugs. This is close to four times higher than the overall prevalence of injecting drug use (IDU) worldwide. Sixty-two percent of the HIV epidemic in this region is attributable to injecting drug use; over 35% of HIV positive women were infected through sharing of contaminated injecting equipment; and another 50% of women living with HIV were infected via unprotected sex with an infected IDU

PAPUA NEW GUINEA: "Sorcery, Shame Hinder Papua New Guinea Fight Against AIDS"

Terrified of HIV and its supposed connection to sorcery, some in Papua New Guinea "throw HIV-infected people into the river or dig a grave and put them in it and let them die, or just leave them [in] the backyard and refuse to feed them," said Father Jude, a Franciscan who runs an HIV/AIDS clinic in Port Moresby.

Police investigate trafficking of women across West Timor border

Many Indonesian women were enticed to work abroad with high salary but in fact they were sold and forced to make a living as sex workers. According to Gadis, the current law on children's protection could not cover all cases of women and children smuggling.

Potential Costs and Benefits of Responding to the Mobility Aspect of the HIV Epidemic in South East Asia

This paper presents a methodology to estimate the costs and potential benefits of responding to the mobility aspects of the HIV epidemic in South East Asia. One of the steps in strengthening the countries’ capabilities for appropriate policy and programmatic decisions in resource allocation for HIV/AIDS programmes to reduce mobility related HIV vulnerability, it is important to have costing information on responses, or lack thereof, to mobility related factors in HIV prevention & mitigation of the impact of AIDS

1098 kb pdf

Preventing Trafficking and HIV/AIDS in South Asia

Trafficking and sexual exploitation of women and girls is not merely a problem of law and order, just as HIV/AIDS prevalence is simply a medical problem

635 kb pdf

Ramatex On Rack Again

A group of about five were told by the company nurse that they had contracted hepatitis C - a viral infection of the liver. A source told The Namibian that a manager told employees they had to stop work immediately, their work contracts were being cancelled and they would be sent home

Rape Camp

Sexual Exploitation and the Internet in Cambodia—this paper will present an overview of the global sex industries, the trafficking in women and child, and the Internet sex industry in the context of prostitution in Southeast Asia

217 kb pdf

Rapes fuels Bangladesh AIDS crisis

Police officers and crime lords who sexually abuse gay men and sex workers are stoking an emerging AIDS (news web sites) epidemic in Bangladesh, a Human Rights Watch (HRW) report - warned.

Reducing Vulnerability to AIDS in Asia: the Role of Rural Development

While the world’s attention has justifiably been focused on the ravages of AIDS in Sub-Saharan Africa, there has been a HIV/AIDS epidemic in Asia. UNAIDS estimates that by 1997 some 80% of all new HIV infections were in the developing world.

109 kb pdf

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Regional health meeting concludes in Laos

The program, promoted across the region by the World Health Organization, involves distributing condoms to sex workers, teaching them about safe sex, and enlisting the support of the police.

Report of the First Asia Pacific PLWHA Congress

The Congress focus on developing Asia Pacific regional advocacy agendas and strategic action plans based on the issues identifies by the Asia pacific PLWHA.

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Review of Issues and South Asian Initiatives on Safe Migration, Rule of Law and the Care of Victims

Within this broad framework, SARI/Q concentrates its effort on improving the implementation of laws and policies for combating trafficking and violence against women and children, ensuring safe migration and raising the standards for services to victims.

Pdf 360 kb

Reversing the Tide: Priorities for HIV/AIDS Prevention in Central Asia (Large report-increase download time)

This study aims to identify strategies for ensuring early and effective intervention to control the AIDS epidemic in Central Asia at national and regional levels, considering priorities based on global evidence.

3641 kb pdf

Risk and Vulnerability

There are three factors that appear to play a crucial role in HIV transmission in the Asia and Pacific region: female sex work, substance use, and mobility. Female sex workers and their clients have been a major factor in the heterosexual transmission of HIV in Thailand, Cambodia and parts of India and Myanmar. Separate but explosive epidemics have been seen in some IDU populations in Thailand, Myanmar, Manipur (India), and Malaysia. And mobile populations, particularly at national borders are at higher risk of HIV acquisition due to the fact of being away from home, community and the anonymity and loneliness of travelling.

Sex industry assuming massive proportions in Southeast Asia Economic incentives and hardships fuel the growth of the sex sector

"The sex sector is not recognized as an economic sector in official statistics, development plans or government budgets." Governments are constrained not only because of the sensitivity and complexity of the issues involved but also because the circumstances of the sex workers can range widely from freely chosen and remunerative employment to debt bondage and virtual slavery. The countries have, however, taken action to eliminate child prostitution, an activity the ILO report caracterizes as "a serious human rights violation and an intolerable form of child labour." Child prostitution risks growing as poverty and unemployment strain family income and contribute to the expanding ranks of street children who are an increasingly common sight on the streets of cities worldwide.

Sex Work and HIV/AIDS in Asia (Very large report-increase download time)

People who buy and sell sex pose one of the high-risk behaviours for HIV exposure in Asia. It is therefore essential for HIV prevention interventions to take into account the nature of the Asian sex industry

2,712 kb pdf

Sexual Risk Behaviour and Risk Perception of unwanted Pregnancy and Sexually Transmitted Infection among Young Factory Workers in Nepal

The study has shown that substantial proportions of young factory workers indulge in risky sexual behaviour. Substance abuse, early sexual experimentation, multiple partners, irregular use of condoms, low use of other contraceptives, unwanted pregnancies, frequent occurrence of unsafe abortions and instances of rape or sexual harassment are common. Despite high-risk behaviour, relatively few young people considered themselves to be at risk of getting STIs or HIV/AIDS unwanted pregnancy.

432 kb pdf

Socio-Economic Causes and Consequences of HIV / AIDS: A Focus on South Asia

HIV/AIDS is a major development challenge with implications beyond the health sector. Socio-economic factors such as gender inequality, poverty and livelihood issues, which are key causes of high mobility and migration of people and trafficking of women and children, also contribute to the spread of HIV/AIDS, and are, in turn exacerbated by it. These factors operate within the legal and ethical environment, which also influences responses to the HIV-affected.

Spotlight: Reducing stigma and discrimination: Successful examples from the health care sector in Asia

There is no shortage of studies demonstrating that stigma and discrimination is common in health care settings in Asia. Ask anyone living with HIV where they experience the most discrimination based on their serostatus, their occupation as a sex worker, or their injecting drug use: They will often reply that health workers are the ones that make them feel the worst. Stories of segregation in wards, refusal of care, and disclosure of status are common in the region.

STD and HIV Prevalence Survey Among Female Sex Workers and Truckers on Highway Routes in the Terai, Nepal

Female sex workers and truckers in the Terai region have been

identified as key core group populations in the HIV/STD control

plan for Nepal…in an effort to determine the HIV/STD prevalence

among sex workers and truckers and to determine the demographic,

behavioral and biological correlates for infection.  Data from this study

 will also be used as a baseline for evaluating control interventions,

and to assist in strategic planning to reduce HIV/STD in the region

1354 kb pdf

STRATEGIES OF CIVIL SOCIETY TO ADDRESS AIDS IN ASIA: EMPHASIS ON THE SEX SECTOR

Asia has about 3.3 billion people representing 60% of the world’s population, with a large population of children and the poor. It also has the world’s two most populous nations and systems of government that range from constitutional monarchies to republics and dictatorship. It is a continent of diverse people speaking hundreds of languages and subscribing to different cultures, beliefs and religions, living in a plethora of political, economic and social situations. The diversity in the continent is also mirrored within the countries. The tremendous diversity in Asia makes generalisation about HIV/AIDS meaningless because it prevents the appreciation of the specificity of the spread of HIV in the local social context, and the cultural sensitivity that make strategies effective in one setting but useless in another. Against the background of such diversity, this paper tries to highlight the key issues and strategies related to the sex sector that were brought up at the International Conference on HIV/AIDS in Asia Pacific held in Kuala Lumpur from 20-27 October 1999.

Thailand-monitoring HIV/AIDS

Targeting high risk groups

111kb pdf

Thailand's Response to AIDS

There are very few developing countries in the world where public policy has been effective in preventing the spread of HIV/AIDS on a national scale. Thailand—where a massive program to control HIV has reduced visits to commercial sex workers by half, raised condom usage, curtailed STDs dramatically, and achieved substantial reductions in new HIV infections – is an exception

449 kb pdf

The Economic Impact of AIDS-Mortality on Household Thailand

(Large report-increased down-load time)

Reported data on AIDS cases in Thailand suggest that laborers and agricultural workers who are generally the poorest and least educated, a the the most susceptible to AIDS

184 kb pdf

THE FORCED PROSTITUTION OF GIRLS INTO THE CHILD SEX TOURISM INDUSTRY

In Cambodia, the red light district at Svay Pak proudly claims to be home to the largest concentration of brothels in the country. The village was designed with the intent of catering to the sex tourist. Voidee San is 15 and came to the brothel as payment to the brothel keeper for her family's debt. Vinh is probably about 13 years old. She stands in the doorway of the brothel with an oversized red dress and heavy make-up on in an attempt to drum up business. She is trying to earn her passage back to Vietnam.

The Spread of HIV among Female IDUs in Southern Kyrgyzstan

This study was conducted during December 2007 and January 2008 in the cities of Osh and Jalal-Abad, and in Osh Oblast. The purpose of the study was to fill an information vacuum regarding female drug users in Kyrgyzstan. Despite frequent references to the use of Kyrgyz women in narcotrafficking and reports by international organizations about growth in the number of women drug users in neighboring Kazakhstan, this vulnerable group has received remarkably little attention from international donors and human rights and nongovernmental organizations on the one hand, and from government bodies that provide medical and social services on the other.

Trafficking in children in Asia: a Regional overview

The available research shows that the number of children trafficked-particularly for sexual exploitation-across South and South-East Asia is rising. It is unclear, however, whether this increase reflects better reporting and heightened awareness of the issue or an actual increase in the number of cases

139 kb pdf

Trends in HIV and AIDS based on HIV/AIDS surveillance data in Japan

In recent years a decline in the number of new AIDS cases has been observed in several industrialized countries. It is important to know whether these recent trends observed in North America and Europe are also occurring in Japan

179 kb pdf

Update-New Zealand's battle with Hepatitis C Virus

Some New Zealand hepatitis C sufferers living with "a time bomb in their livers" now have a better chance of being cured with the Government's agreement to a more effective treatment.

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