What we do

HIV and AIDS

A caregiver rocks an HIV-positive baby at a child care centre in Tondo, a neighbourhood of Manila, Philippines.

In 2009, an estimated 22,000 children became newly infected in Asia. 90% of children infected with HIV at birth were infected through mother-to-child transmission of HIV. The estimated number of children 0 – 14 years living with HIV in the East Asia and Pacific region has increased from 50,000 in 2005 to 69,000 in 2009.

Most countries in the region are low prevalence; less than 1% of each national population is infected. But, with the large population of the region even a small percentage translates into huge numbers of people – an estimated 2.3 million people in the region with HIV (2009).

The epidemic is largely concentrated among men who have sex with men (MSM), people who inject drugs (PWID), sex workers (SW) and their clients with wide variations in HIV prevalence in these key populations as well as significant variations in the coverage of HIV prevention services. HIV is spreading more widely, especially to the female partners of these key populations showing an increase in HIV infections among women.

Stigma and discrimination discourages women from seeking testing and treatment that will prevent their newborns from becoming infected. AIDS has orphaned half-a-million children, and 1.6 million have been affected by the epidemic in the region.

HIV and AIDS primarily affect the poor and marginalized. People who are better off have better access to information and health services that can help prevent them from becoming infected with HIV and to treatments that can help those living with the virus.

The groups most at risk for HIV and AIDS are those already marginalized within society: sex workers, men who have sex with men, people who inject drugs, migrants – and their children. The continued spread of HIV in the East Asia and Pacific region is testament to continued inequality, injustice and ignorance.

Adolescents and young people are now among the most vulnerable to HIV infection. 95% of all new HIV infections among young people occur among most-at-risk adolescents (2008, Commission on AIDS in Asia Report) and most of the newly infected are between the ages of 15 and 24. These are adolescents and young people who may be engaged in injecting-drug use, sex work or other risk behaviours or have family members who are engaged in high risk behaviours.

UNICEF’s response to the HIV epidemic is built around the ‘Four Ps’: Preventing Mother to Child Transmission; providing paediatric treatment; preventing infection among adolescents and young people; and protecting and supporting children affected by AIDS.

Several factors hinder an effective response, including limited access to antiretroviral treatment, lack of knowledge among young people, gender inequalities, gender-based violence, increasing risk factors such as intravenous drug use and unsafe sex and taboos related to social behaviour.

UNICEF advocates the continuum of care approach. This begins with the mother and her newborn child and addresses the myriad needs of families. UNICEF works with National AIDS Committees, NGOs and United Nations agencies under the umbrella of UNAIDS. It also partners with the Asian Development Bank (ADB), the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), and the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria (GFTAM).

Among UNICEF initiatives on HIV is the regional AIDS Data Hub (www.aidsdatahub.org) that collects, synthesizes and analyses information to provide an evidence base for advocacy and effective responses to the pandemic. The Asia-Pacific Elimination of Parent-to-Child Transmission of HIV website (www.eptctasiapacific.org) promotes and measures progress, identifies gaps and service needs, and guides advocacy and resource mobilization towards the elimination of paediatric HIV and Congenital Syphilis in the region by 2015.