Alliance calls for open and honest approach to HIV vulnerability
05 July 2006
At the recent High Level Meeting on AIDS in New York, a number of member states were unwilling to reference populations at high risk for HIV infection, such as injecting drug users, sex workers and men who have sex with men. Yet, according to the Alliance, the success of HIV prevention efforts rests on targeting just those populations.
The Alliance is calling for international donors, non-governmental organisations and, in particular, UNAIDS, to help ensure that national decision makers adequately address the unique issues faced by vulnerable groups as they begin implementing the commitment to universal access at country level.
In many developing countries, populations that are key to the dynamics of HIV transmission are at the margins of society and have poor access to health and social services. As a result, extra priority needs to be given to ensuring that these groups have access to appropriate services.
"Twenty-five years into the epidemic we should be able to state clearly which communities are most vulnerable to HIV infection and to articulate what needs to be done to take HIV prevention and treatment efforts to scale with those communities," said Joseph O'Reilly, Senior Policy Adviser at the International HIV/AIDS Alliance.
"The lack of agreement at the High Level Meeting about the need to acknowledge the unique risks for specific groups, together with the impact that the disease has on them, was enormously frustrating and is at the heart of much of our ongoing failure to tackle HIV effectively.
"It is difficult but absolutely essential to talk about sexual behaviour and drug use when we are talking about what fuels this epidemic and exacerbates its impact. But we can't do that without being forthright about the communities and populations most vulnerable to HIV infection."
Prior to the meeting the Alliance warned that the draft national indicators in the Secretary General's report on universal access risked overlooking the special needs of vulnerable communities. The Alliance subsequently called for the recommended national indicator – the percentage of populations most at risk reached by prevention programmes – to be made core to all national plans for securing universal access.
