Preventing AIDS, Promoting Reproductive Health, Saving Lives

UNAIDS web site Resources: Key Issues from Reproductive Health Outlook As Research Accelerates, Focus Intensifies on Options for 'First-Generation' Microbicide from the Alan Guttmacher Institute UNGASS on HIV/AIDS: Women's Empowerment Embraced, Reproductive Rights Slighted from CRLP Teaching Youth in the US from PATH Prevention and Care from Population Council Children and AIDS from Save the Children Free Testing Dec. 4-8 from Planned Parenthood NY City Fact Sheets from UN Population Fund on HIV/AIDS (in PDF format): Overview Continuum of Care Condom Availability and Programming Costs and Challenges Vulnerable Groups Women Young People UNFPA Objectives

Nov 29 - The international community will mark World AIDS Day on December 1, 2001 as a means of intensifying efforts to save lives through HIV/AIDS prevention efforts that promote reproductive health programs and recognize the role of men and women alike.

The HIV/AIDS pandemic is emerging as one of the great economic, social, security and development challenges of the early 21st century, as evidenced by the dramatic and devastating impact of the disease and its emergence at the top of the agenda for international cooperation.

Recent developments include:

·As of the end of 2000, there were more than 36 million people in the world living with HIV/AIDS – 50% more than the World Health Organization estimated less than 10 years earlier. Of the total, 16.4 million are women and 1.5 million are children. More than 90 percent of all cases are occurring in developing countries. To date, more than 22 million people have died from AIDS (including more than 13 million women and children).

·In June of this year, the United Nations convened Heads of State from around the world for a Special Session on HIV/AIDS. At the Special Session, international leaders agreed on a global action plan for marshalling international political and financial commitments to confront the escalating global HIV/AIDS crisis, which has impacted more than 60 million people around the world. Central to the success of this effort is the newly created Global Fund for HIV/AIDS to support prevention, treatment and care efforts around the world. The United States pledged a $200 million initial commitment to this effort, with total commitments exceeding $1 billion.

·Recent years have witnessed an acceleration in the number of HIV/AIDS cases involving women. Where women once accounted for less than 40 percent of all cases, by the end of 2000, women as a percentage of all HIV/AIDS infected adults reached 47 percent. Accordingly, there is increasingly attention to the special gender dimensions of the HIV/AIDS crisis – which include everything from women’s low social status in many nations to the importance of basic education and continued research on women-controlled methods of guarding against sexually transmitted infections like HIV.

·HIV/AIDS is increasingly recognized as a global security issue, with the potential to destabilize countries and regions. The UN Security Council has held four sessions on the HIV/AIDS issue in the past year and UNAIDS and the UN Department of Peacekeeping Operations have entered into an agreement to help prevent the spread of the disease among peacekeepers and vulnerable populations during conflict.

·Experience has revealed that use of anti-retroviral drugs during pregnancy and delivery, combined with other strategies, can reduce the incidence of mother-to-child transmission by up to 66%.

At present, the only protection against HIV/AIDS is prevention against infection. Prevention efforts represent the cornerstone of the international response to the pandemic.

The UN Population Fund (UNFPA) notes in its World AIDS Day web features that prevention encompasses effort reproductive health programs as well as communications and educational efforts aimed at promoting safer sexual behaviors. Under the auspices of UNFPA, the international community has agreed to seek universal access to high-quality reproductive health services, including family planning by 2015.

In order to ensure universal access to reproductive health and prevent HIV-AIDS, adequate supply of family planning commodities must be assured. In countries with successful HIV/AIDS prevention programs like Senegal and Thailand, increased use of condoms has been critical. In Uganda, male condom use increased to 55% in 1995, from 15% in 1989; similarly, Uganda’s outstanding prevention efforts have significantly reduced early sexual activities by adolescents. In addition development of new, women-controlled methods of family planning and AIDS prevention, such as microbicides.

World AIDS Day will also focus on “I Care…Do You?”, the 2001 international theme for the World AIDS Campaign directed by UNAIDS. The “I Care…Do You?” campaign is aimed at engaging men in HIV/AIDS prevention strategies.

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