injecting drug users

Improvements in the evidence base but where is the will to end AIDS?

World AIDS Day provides us with an opportunity for reflection – to remember those who we have lost and to look forward, to consider what still needs to be done if we are to tackle HIV. In terms of scientific advances and political commitment this year has been a very mixed bag. Many of us were delighted when the HPTN 052 study found that antiretroviral treatment prevents the sexual transmission of HIV among heterosexual couples in whom one partner is HIV-infected and the other is not. The study showed a 96 per cent reduction in risk of HIV transmission: A

Chinese Government Detains Sex Worker Activist Calling for the Decriminalisation of Sex Work: Statement from the NSWP

On Monday August 2, 2010 police in Beijing detained Ye Haiyan, an activist with community based organisation the China Women’s Rights Workshop, after she joined other sex workers in publicly petitioning for the Chinese government to decriminalise prostitution. The Global Network of Sex Work Projects (NSWP) stands in solidarity with Ye Haiyan, human rights defenders, and sex workers who speak up against stigma, discrimination, and the criminalisation of our livelihoods Criminalisation of sex workers, their clients and sex businesses drives the sex industry underground, making it more difficult for sex workers to access services – making them more vulnerable to

Rights of vulnerable people and the future of HIV/AIDS

An article in the Lancet Infectious Diseases, Volume 10, Issue 2, Page 67, February 2010. The authors argue that prejudice, discrimination, and stigmatisation of people with HIV/AIDS, and key groups most affected by and at most risk of the disease, continue to hamper eff orts to tackle the pandemic. That about a third of people living with HIV/AIDS in countries without generalised epidemics are men who have sex with men, sex workers, and injecting drug users, and in countries with generalised epidemics people in these key groups have a higher prevalence of HIV/AIDS than do the general population. They conclude

HIV and Sex Work in Thailand

Beginning in the late 1980s, the HIV epidemic increased rapidly in Thailand, particularly in the upper Northern region [1, 2]. In 1990‐91, soon after it was observed that the HIV epidemic was spreading among injecting drug users and sex workers, the government acted decisively, launching a nationwide campaign to reduce HIV transmission. Thailand became the first country in Asia to launch the 100% Condom Use Programme (CUP) – a collaborative effort among local authorities, public health officers, sex establishment owners, and sex workers – a target was set to ensure that clients could not purchase sexual services without condom use.

HIV and Sex Work in Pakistan

Until recently, Pakistan was considered as a ‘low HIV prevalence, high risk country’ in relation to HIV. The country is now classified as having a concentrated epidemic, with an HIV prevalence of more than 5% among injecting drug users (IDUs) in at least eight major cities in three of the four provinces and among Hijras sex workers in at least one city [1, 2]. At the end of 2009, it was estimated that were 97,400 people living with HIV and AIDS, with 2,917 patients registered across the country, among whom 1,320 are on antiretroviral drug therapy [2]. The national adult

HIV and Sex Work in Indonesia

Although the prevalence of HIV in the general population is low (0.2%) and is mainly concentrated among injecting drug users (IDUs) in Jakarta, West Java and Bali, the epidemic has now spread to other key populations at higher risk such as non‐injecting partners of IDUs, sex workers and their clients [1]. The number of reported cases attributable to sexual transmission increased from 17.6% in 1987‐1990 to over half of the reported cases in 2009 [3],[4]. The estimated proportion of new HIV infections attributed to sexual transmission is projected to reach 58% by 2014 [5] and 42‐43% of new HIV infection