Preventing HIV/AIDS and the ICPD

The Problem

“The social and economic disadvantages that women face make them especially vulnerable to sexually transmitted infections, including HIV, as illustrated, for example, by their exposure to the high-risk sexual behavior of their partners. For women, the symptoms from sexually transmitted diseases are often hidden, making them more difficult to diagnose than in men, and the health consequences are often greater, including increased risk of infertility and ectopic pregnancy. The risk of transmission from infected men to women is also greater than from infected women to men, and many women are powerless to take steps to protect themselves.” ICPD Para 7.28.

The Promise

Countries are urged to “prevent, reduce the incidence of, and provide treatment for, sexually transmitted diseases, including HIV/AIDS, and the complications of sexually transmitted diseases such as infertility, with special attention to girls and women.” ICPD Para 7.29.

UNFPA's Strategic Approach

UNFPA's strategy for combating HIV/AIDS consists of the following main elements:

• Promotion of condom use
• Encouraging voluntary counseling and testing (VCT)
• Support for information, education and communication programmes
• Ensuring blood safety
• Prevention of mother-to-child transmission
• Elimination of stigma and discrimination attached to HIV positive status
• Programmes to support home-based care and support for vulnerable groups
• Reaching young people with prevention campaigns, with an emphasis on girls and young women
• Training of health professionals to treat HIV/AIDS.

How are we doing?

The prevention of HIV/AIDS is high on the agenda of many countries, thanks to efforts by UNFPA, UNAIDS, WHO, UNIFEM, UNDP and other UN agencies. International NGOs, such as IPPF, Pathfinder, PATH, and Marie Stopes (among others) have also played major roles in national and regional prevention and treatment programmes.

Despite the policy priority accorded the fight against AIDS globally, 1.1 million new infections occurred in 2003, over 90% of them in developing countries. Moreover, only 7% of those infected with the virus that causes AIDS in developing countries have access to antiretroviral treatment.

Although the Global AIDS Fund had increased to $5 billion by 2003, UNAIDS estimates that bringing the pandemic under control will require an investment of at least $12 billion a year by the end of 2005.

Behind the mounting death toll and lack of resources, some progress has been made in containing the disease. Though infection rates are increasing in South Asia, Vietnam, China and Eastern Europe, UNAIDS reports that they are stabilizing in sub-Saharan Africa, which contains nearly three-quarters of all HIV positive people. Recent surveys have found that the number of adults infected by HIV in the region has dropped in 15 countries and leveled off in another 23. Furthermore, there has been a noticeable decrease in the number of infections among young people aged 15-24 in Eastern Africa, especially Uganda, Ethiopia, Tanzania, Malawi and Zambia, countries where UNFPA's advocacy programmes have played a major role.

UNFPA reports that over the past decade:

• 109 countries adopted national strategies to prevent the spread of HIV/AIDS, three quarters of the total number which made commitments in Cairo. Of these, 40 sub-Saharan African countries adopted far reaching, comprehensive strategies involving prevention, treatment, care and support.
• 98 countries have nation-wide prevention campaigns in full swing.
• 70 countries introduced voluntary testing and counseling programmes.
• 69 countries launched campaigns to prevent mother-to-child transmission.

A new initiative by WHO also aims to make generic antiretroviral drugs available to three million HIV positive people in developing countries by 2005.