HIV and AIDS
Approximately 28,000 children in the region are living with HIV. About 90% of them were infected at birth through mother-to-child transmission. Stigma and discrimination discourages women from seeking 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. Most countries in East Asia and the Pacific 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 2.4 million people in the region live with HIV. 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, homosexuals, injecting-drug users, migrants – and their children. The continued spread of HIV in the East Asia and Pacific region is testament to continued inequality, injustice and ignorance. Young people and women are now among the most vulnerable to HIV infection. Most of the newly infected are between the ages of 15 and 24. More than half of all those living with the virus are now women. The epidemic among young people is concentrated in most-at-risk and especially vulnerable adolescents. These are young people who may be engaged in injecting-drug use, sex work or other risk behaviours or have family members who are. UNICEF’s response to the HIV epidemic is built around the ‘Four Ps’: Preventing Mother to Child Transmission; paediatric treatment; protection; and prevention. Several factors hinder an effective response, including limited access to antiretroviral treatment, lack of knowledge among young people, 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, the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, and The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria. Among UNICEF initiatives on HIV is the AIDS Data Hub that collects, synthesizes and analyses information to provide an evidence base for advocacy and effective responses to the pandemic.
Related links
ASEAN Events Summary Report - 9th ICAAP Symposium: 11 August 2009, Bali, Indonesia 9th ICAPP: Universal Access for Children Affected by AIDS in Nepal (UCAAN: A Public-Private Partnership, by Jacques Boyer, Deputy Representative, UNICEF Nepal and Satish Raj Pandey, Deputy Director, FHI Nepal
Campaign update UN agencies call for concerted effort to rapidly scale up access to HIV testing and counselling services in Asia and the Pacific East Asia and Pacific campaign update on children and HIV/AIDS Australia, China, Lao PDR, Malaysia, Mongolia, New Zealand, Philippines, Republic of Korea |
