UNAIDS Asia-Pacific 
MANILA, 23 September 2015—A roadmap adopted today by nine countries in Asia charts a new course, which aims to accelerate the transition towards evidence informed prevention, treatment and support services for people who use drugs. The participants of the Third Consultation on Compulsory Centres for Drug Users (CCDU) which took place in Manila, Philippines this week recognized that current punitive approaches are failing and a paradigm shift from punitive laws and policies to voluntary community-based services is necessary.
BANGKOK, 23 September 2015— An innovative HIV prevention tool, which has shown to be effective at reducing the transmission of HIV in gay men and others at higher risk is to be introduced in parts of Asia. While, oral pre-exposure prophylaxis or PrEP is starting to transform HIV prevention in the United States, it has yet to be integrated into programmes in Asia. Representatives from national AIDS programmes, health service providers and community groups from eighteen countries in Asia are exploring how to roll-out PrEP at a meeting taking place from 23-25 September in Bangkok, Thailand.
PrEP is the use of antiretroviral medication in the form of a daily pill to prevent people from acquiring HIV. It has shown up to 90% effectiveness in preventing the transmission of HIV in people at substantial risk, including gay men and other men who have sex with men (MSM), HIV-negative people whose partners are living with HIV, transgender women and people who inject drugs.
The three day consultation PrEPARING Asia is led by the Asia Pacific Coalition on Male Sexual Health (APCOM) with support from the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS), World Health Organization, UNICEF, USAID and FHI360.
“We know that insisting on using condoms alone does not work for HIV prevention and PrEP can be an option for some MSM, but this needs to be integrated into the current prevention package,” said Midnight Poonkasetwattana, APCOM’s Executive Director. “APCOM’s role is to ensure that our community know the correct information on PrEP and can advocate for its inclusion at the national level.”
Asia is experiencing a severe AIDS epidemic among MSM. In six countries HIV prevalence is greater than 5% and surveys indicate that in some large cities prevalence ranges from 15% to 30% among MSM. Consistent condom use remains low. In most major Asian cities less than half of MSM are using condoms consistently, which is far too low to have an impact on stopping the AIDS epidemic.
“The numbers say it all. We can not stop new HIV infections in gay men and other men who have sex with men if we stick to business as usual,” said Steve Kraus, Director of UNAIDS Regional Support Team for Asia and the Pacific. “PrEP answers an unmet need and expands the prevention options for people at substantial risk of HIV. We need to scale up PrEP as an additional effective HIV prevention intervention.”
PrEP is currently the only available prevention option that HIV-negative people can use discretely and not at the time of sex. However, it does not prevent other sexually transmitted infections and is not a contraceptive, so its provision is best integrated with other sexual and reproductive health services, including condoms.
So far only the United States has approved the use of PrEP for HIV prevention. Other parts of the world have much less information. In Asia, Thailand is playing a leading role in increasing awareness and demand, with the Thai Red Cross AIDS Research Center offering PrEP to a small number of MSM as part of a combined pilot HIV prevention program.
The rollout of PrEP faces challenges as users need to have regular medical check-ups and evaluation, including HIV tests and effectiveness is highly dependent on adherence.
While acknowledging the challenges, leading epidemiologist and President of the International AIDS Society Chris Beyrer said: “The time to act is now. The evidence is overwhelming. PrEP works.”
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Contact
APCOM | Craig Knowles| tel. +66 81 907 7653 | knocraig@gmail.com
UNAIDS | Saya Oka | tel. +66 2680 4128 | okas@unaids.org
APCOM
Asia Pacific Coalition on Male Sexual Health (APCOM) is a regional coalition of MSM and HIV community-based organisations, the government sector, donors, technical experts and the UN system. Their main purpose is advocating for the health and human rights of MSM and transgender people in Asia and the Pacific. For more information on APCOM, please visit our website http://www.apcom.org or our Facebook page http://www.facebook.com/apcom.org
UNAIDS
The Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) leads and inspires the world to achieve its shared vision of zero new HIV infections, zero discrimination and zero AIDS-related deaths. UNAIDS unites the efforts of 11 UN organizations—UNHCR, UNICEF, WFP, UNDP, UNFPA, UNODC, UN Women, ILO, UNESCO, WHO and the World Bank—and works closely with global and national partners to maximize results for the AIDS response. Learn more at unaids.org and connect with us on Facebook and Twitter.
On 20 September, Nepal took a historic step by adopting a new constitution, which protects lesbians, gays, bisexual, transgender and intersex (LGBTI) people from discrimination, violence, and abuse. The country is the first in Asia and joins only a handful of other countries to include equal rights protections for LGBTI people in its national constitution. UNAIDS spoke to Sanjay Sharma, a prominent LGBTI rights activist working with the Blue Diamond Society in Nepal about the new constitution.
More than 1000 babies were born free of HIV last year alone due to effective interventions provided by the Chinese government, according to a new report released on 17 September. The findings from the Progress report on China National Prevention of Mother-to-Child Transmission of HIV, Syphilis and Hepatitis B Programme, compiled by the National Health and Family Planning Commission are one of several shared at the 10th Asia-Pacific United Nations Elimination of Parent-to-Child Transmission of HIV and Syphilis Task Force meeting in Beijing, China this week.
The provocative photography essay Coming Out, which tells the story of a lesbian couple has stirred up a lot of passion on the internet. Arjun Kamath is the photographer behind this project. He started off as an engineering student in a university in Bangalore, India but soon realized that his heart was elsewhere. After taking a photography workshop, Arjun fell in love with this art form. When he completed his engineering degree, he moved to Los Angeles, USA where he is currently getting a Masters in Film and Television production. UNAIDS recently spoke to Arjun about what inspired and motivated him to create Coming Out.
“When I was 30 years-old, I was surprised to learn that I was pregnant,” said Prem Paika, who lives in Chiang Mai, a big city in the north of Thailand. “My partner, who I had been with for the past eight years thought he was infertile, so we did not use any birth control.”
Bangkok, 14 September 2015 – The Asia–Pacific region has made significant progress in efforts to eliminate the transmission of HIV and syphilis, but thousands of mothers and children have yet to feel the benefits.
As the academic school year gets into full swing in Thailand, Thammasat, one of the country’s most prestigious and progressive universities is making a Social Life Skills class mandatory for its incoming freshman. This new course aims to ensure students have the skills to lead a successful life and covers a wide range of subjects, including music, art, sports and a three hour session on sex, where part of the focus is on gender identity. Kritipat Chotidhanitsakul (Jimmy) has been invited to sensitize students about transgender issues and by the end of the school year is expected to have lectured to 8000 students. This is the first time Thammasat has made such a topic mandatory for new students.
UNAIDS Asia-Pacific 