| HIV Prevention Now - Programme Briefs
The purpose of this section is to
provide staff, particularly field staff, with concise
and useful information in supporting countries in their
response to the HIV/AIDS epidemic.
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The Overview is intended to summarize the
importance of prevention in combating the HIV/AIDS pandemic and
baseline strategies for UNFPA programme response at the country
level. Upcoming briefs will focus on substantive areas including
prevention of HIV infection in mothers and its transmission to their
children, young people, condom programming, gender, emergency situations,
population policy, and population based data. more >>
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Within the Fund's mandate for HIV prevention,
UNFPA's strategic focus is in three core areas: HIV prevention among
young people, HIV prevention among pregnant women and comprehensive
condom programming. In line with this strategic focus, this programme
brief outlines the importance of and actions for the prevention
of HIV infection in pregnant women, which in turn prevents transmission
of HIV to their infants and partners. UNFPA's primary goal in this
area is to ensure that HIV prevention among pregnant women remain
high on the political agenda and as a priority for action.
more >>
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Young people are the 'window of hope' in
changing the course of the HIV/AIDS pandemic. Preventing HIV infections
among them is vital. Of the 40 million people living with HIV/AIDS
worldwide, one third are aged 15-24 years and roughly half were
infected during their youth1 . This makes it imperative that young
people be at the center of prevention actions, both in focus and
in involvement, to ultimately halt the pandemic. As many behavioural
lifestyles are formed during the early adolescent years, and as
acquisition of HIV in young people is predominantly through sexual
activities, this period in life provides the opportune time to positively
influence behaviours, choices and lifestyles that will hopefully
last into adulthood. more >>
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Gender dynamics are understood as the different
roles, expectations, identities, needs, opportunities and obstacles
that society assigns to women and men based on sex. Girls and boys,
women and men, have the same rights, potential and capacities; but
discrimination against girls and women based on socio-cultural norms
often relegates them to lower status and value. This often places
them at considerable disadvantages in terms of their access to resources
and goods, decision-making power, choices, and opportunities across
all spheres of life. more >>
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Voluntary counseling and testing (VCT) for
HIV allows individuals to know their HIV status and serves as the
gateway for both HIV prevention and for early access to treatment,
care and support. Knowing ones status provides for the choice to
- for those who are negative, remain negative; and for those who
are positive, seek access to treatment, care and support, and to
reduce the risk of HIV transmission to future children and partners.
more >>
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Condoms are universally recognized as one
of the most effective ways to prevent HIV and other sexually transmitted
infections. Condom programming is an integral component of a range
of HIV prevention strategies that includes informed, responsible
and safer sexual behaviour through voluntary abstinence, delayed
age of onset of sexual activity, fidelity, and condom use.
more >>
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Widespread population displacement, whether caused by war or natural
disaster, can severely undermine access to reproductive health information
and services at the same time as it increases vulnerability to HIV. The
specific interventions adopted for provision of STI and HIV prevention,
treatment and care must vary according to the circumstances of the emergency
and depend on access to the populations at risk.
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This brief describes how the nature of a particular epidemic
and the dynamic environment in which it thrives must be understood and incorporated
into programming to ensure effectiveness. Understanding the epidemic in specific
countries and communities – its
patterns and trends, and the driving forces behind it from an economic, social,
cultural and behavioral perspective will help define the population groups
at risk of infection and the issues that preventive actions need to address
in
a more focused manner. There is a caveat, however, in interpreting and using
prevalence or incidence rates. For example, it is not so much national prevalence
rates that
should influence preventive actions but rather the rates within different settings
and population groups in any given community, country or region and the tell-tale
trends behind them. Together they provide better indicators for the course
of the epidemic and the type of preventive interventions required to quell
its progression.
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This brief looks into the benefits of applying our skills and knowledge in
the area of 'population and development' to strengthen our HIV prevention efforts.
Population and development data and analysis can play an important role in
better understanding of the dynamics of a given HIV/AIDS epidemic and in presenting
socio-economic characteristics of groups at risk of infection. Likewise, population
and development frameworks
and strategies can also be adapted for HIV/AIDS. Thus utilizing such resources
has the potential to better enable more effective HIV prevention programming,
advocacy, and policy dialogue; as well as reinforcing HIV/AIDS' linkage with
population dynamics such as life expectancy, economic growth and poverty.
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PREVENTING HIV INFECTION: HIV
Prevention Now - Programme Briefs
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