UNAIDS Asia-Pacific 
Liu Jiulong is the first person in China to complete an AIDS RIDE. This fundraiser and HIV awareness raising bicycling event has been popular in other countries like the USA for many years. However, in China fear of stigma and discrimination have kept many people living with HIV from taking part in public events.
“Cycling promotes a healthy lifestyle and the AIDS RIDE is a good way to promote correct HIV prevention knowledge to the general public,” said Liu Jiulong.
His mission was to use the challenge to eliminate ignorance, misunderstanding, fear and discrimination for people living with HIV. His odyssey began 4 May in Nanchang city, his hometown. He rode his bike for 3000 km, cycling through 27 cities. 43 days later he completed his journey triumphantly in Beijing. Liu Jiulong said he carried out 30 advocacy activities during his trip, reaching 16 million people online.
HIV/AIDS programme managers and community groups join hands to strengthen
and expand HIV testing
MANILA, 02 July 2015 — Ten national HIV/AIDS and sexually transmitted infection (STI) programmes, civil society and development partners in the Western Pacific Region have joined forces to ensure that everyone living with HIV knows their status and is able to access HIV treatment. This push for expanded HIV testing coverage came during a recent two-day meeting organized by the World Health Organization’s (WHO) Regional Office for the Western Pacific and the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) in Manila, the Philippines.
Photograph caption: From left to right, Manik Prabhu, Michel Sidibé, Executive Director of UNAIDS, Elvis Joseph, Coach and Babu Seenappa in Geneva, Switzerland on 30 June 2015.
Two exceptional teenagers from Karnataka, India have participated in the 2015 International Children’s Games in Alkmaar, Netherlands. Babu Seenappa and Manik Prabhu were born with HIV. They overcame difficult childhoods to rise to the pinnacle of children’s athletics and participate in the prestigious Games accredited by the International Olympic Committee.
It’s 9pm and the night is just getting going in one popular entertainment establishment in Phnom Penh city. The place which preferred not be identified provides a mix of services in its multi-story building: diners enjoy a restaurant on the ground floor, the rooms in the middle level vibrate with popular songs and on the top floor is the hotel. However in one corner next to several other karaoke rooms, a serious conversation is taking place. It seems out of context amid the high pitched laughter, strobe lights, brightly dressed women and loud male customers. Five entertainment workers are sitting on a sofa talking about why they don’t get tested for HIV.
One woman said, “I don’t know where to go.”
A co-worker agreed and added, “I dare not go. I am too afraid.”
Their interviewer is 22-year-old Rath Chan Molika. She recently quit her job as an entertainment worker and is now an outreach worker and lay counsellor with the SMARTgirl programme. She explained further why the women working in the karaoke parlour feared public health clinics, “First of all it’s because they’re scared to go alone. Secondly, they’re afraid of the needle and blood.” Read More
The Director of UNAIDS Regional Support Team for Asia and the Pacific, Steve Kraus has started a three-day mission to Lao PDR which aims to strengthen the country’s efforts in accelerating its response to HIV. Last month Lao PDR was one of 58 countries and territories in Asia and the Pacific to endorse the Report of the Asia-Pacific Intergovernmental Meeting on HIV and AIDS, along with the Regional framework for action on HIV and AIDS beyond 2015 at the 71st session of the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP) in Bangkok, Thailand.
Opinion Piece: Manisha Dhakal, Executive Director, Blue Diamond Society, Kathmandu, Nepal; Joe Wong, Programme Manager, Asia Pacific Transgender Network
This year began with such hope for transgender people in Nepal as the government announced citizens could identify as “other” on their passports. We were getting ready to celebrate the issuing of the first of these passports when disaster struck the country. Among the thousands of people who were killed by the earthquake which hit the Kathmandu area a little over a month ago, some were lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, intersexual and questioning (LGBTIQ).
ESCAP and UNAIDS welcome commitments by countries to accelerate efforts in response to HIV
BANKGOK (ESCAP News) — Heads of government, ministers and other high-level officials from 50 countries and territories in Asia and the Pacific endorsed the Report of the Asia-Pacific Intergovernmental Meeting on HIV and AIDS, along with the Regional framework for action on HIV and AIDS beyond 2015 at the 71st session of the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP).
Several ESCAP member States emphasized that the Regional Framework for Action on HIV and AIDS beyond 2015 was a useful tool for guiding national efforts towards accelerating action and investment in the HIV response to end AIDS as a public health threat by 2030. However, if the region is to reach that goal, the pace of progress needs to quicken. The next five years are crucial. UNAIDS has set new Fast-Track targets, which include reducing the number of new HIV infections in the region to 79 000 by 2020 from 350 000 in 2013. It is possible to reach this ambitious goal if countries follow the actions outlined in the report and regional framework.
The Mayor of Mumbai, Snehal Ambekar, has pledged her support to accelerating the response to HIV in her city over the next five years, by signing the Paris Declaration on Fast-Track Cities. She made the commitment during a global meeting in Mumbai on “Fast-Track Cities- Ending the AIDS Epidemic Cities: Achieving 90-90-90 Targets by 2020”.
UNAIDS Asia-Pacific 