Islamabad, 9 December 2020: The Government of Pakistan has recently launched another landmark initiative, the Essential Package of Health Services—its national version of universal health coverage. Universal health coverage is a globally promoted initiative and is in line with Pakistan’s commitment to achieving the Sustainable Development Goals, particularly target 3 on health for all and leaving no one behind.

Rena Janamnuaysook steps off the Skytrain in Bangkok’s bustling Sukhumvit shopping district. She looks up, filled with a sense of joy as her eye catches an advert just beyond the platform. The advert is promoting the PrEP in the City campaign to raise awareness and increase the uptake of PrEP among Thai transgender women and shows glimpses of the lives of four transgender women as they juggle their busy work schedules, their role as a mother and their relationship with loved ones, all the while taking control of their health with their daily dose of pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP). For Ms Janamnuaysook, a transgender advocate and Program Manager for Transgender Health at the Institute of HIV Research and Innovation (IHRI), this first-ever PrEP campaign for transgender women in Thailand signals promise for the country’s HIV response.

As COVID-19 pushes the AIDS response even further off track and the 2020 targets are missed, UNAIDS is urging countries to step up action to end AIDS and other pandemics.

Bangkok, 1st December 2020 —In a new report, Prevailing against pandemics by putting people at the centre, UNAIDS is calling on countries to make far greater investments in global pandemic responses and adopt a new set of bold, ambitious but achievable HIV targets. If those targets are met, the world will be back on track to ending AIDS as a public health threat by 2030.

On the occasion of World AIDS Day, we recall lessons learned from the HIV epidemic, most especially that restrictive, stigmatizing and punitive measures can lead to significant human rights violations, with disproportionate effects on already vulnerable communities. These insights from the HIV response are especially relevant today as countries grapple with the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Campaign messages for the 16 Days of Activism against Gender-Based Violence

INTRODUCTION

COVID-19 is not only a health issue, just as HIV never was. It impacts a wide range of human rights, and although it affects all people, it does so unequally. Women and girls in all their diversity are experiencing the greatest impact of the crisis. Their disparate experience is related not only to the virus but also to existing discrimination, gender stereotypes and deeply rooted inequalities including lack of equal access to food, clean water, housing and health services.

When the COVID-19 pandemic began to spread across the globe, it became clear that fears of contracting COVID-19, misinformation and subsequent stigma were major factors deterring people seeking HIV prevention and treatment services. In response to these insights, regional key population networks from Asia and the Pacific, including ANPUD, APCOM, APN+, APNSW, APTN, ICW AP, Youth LEAD and the IATT on YKP, in collaboration with UNAIDS, came together to implement a regional project to promote access to relevant and timely information about COVID-19 targeted to key populations, and record best practices from community-led responses.

“There were no such diseases back in the day! AIDS came into being only because of college kids like you messing around,” shouted an old man at a group of students who were speaking to people about HIV prevention at China’s West Lake beauty spot. “Behave yourselves! We don’t need to listen to your rubbish!”