|
Cambodia 3.0: New Initiative aims to achieve the elimination of New HIV infections by 2020
Monday, 1 July 2013 (Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia) - With the estimated number of annual new HIV infections in
Cambodia plummeting from 20,000 in the early 1990s to around 1,30 0 in 2012, a new initiative called Cambodia 3.0 is being implemented
to achieve the elimination of new HIV infections in the country by 2020.
Mean Chhi Vun, Director of the National Center for HIV, Dermatology and STI and Advisor to the Ministry of Health, referred to the
initiative in his opening plenary remarks in the first plenary session of the 7 th IAS Conference on HIV Pathogenesis, Treatment and
Prevention (IAS 2013) taking place in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia , June 30 - July 3. Some 4,700 AIDS researchers, scientists,
clinicians, community leaders, programme implementers and other participants have gathered for the event, the largest
open scientific AIDS conference in the world.
"The South East Asian region and beyond can learn hugely important lessons from the Cambodian success story in dramatically
turning around the HIV/AIDS epidemic," said Françoise Barré - Sinoussi, IAS 2013 International Chair and
International AIDS Society President." Cambodia is, in many senses, a proof of concept on how to effectively
implement science on the ground in order to scale up treatment and prev ention in a very poor country."
"South East Asia has the body of evidence before it in terms of preven ting and treating the HIV/AIDS epidemic," said IAS 2013 Local
Co-Chair Adeeba Kamarulzaman, Director of the Centre of Excellence for Research in AIDS (CERiA) and Dean of the Faculty of Medicine
at University of Malaya in Kuala Lumpur.
"Malaysia has paved the way in harm reduction, Thailand has paved the way in safe sex, and Cambodia has managed to combine the
two in addition to set in place systems that e ffectively channeled funding in to the effective, on- the-ground rollout of
anti retroviral therapy."
Achieving Universal Access and Moving towards Elimination of New HIV Infections in Cambodia.
In his opening plenary remarks, Mean Chhi Vun (Cambodia), Director of the National Center for HIV, Dermatology and STI and Advisor
to the Ministry of Health, reviewed Cambodia's response to HIV over the past two decades and the way towards elimination of new
HIV infections in Cambodia. In the mid-1990s, Cambodia faced one Asia's fastest growing HIV epidemics, fuelled by
unprotected sex work, but within five years became one of the few countries to have reversed its trend.
From 1998 to 2001, early interventions focused on HIV and STI prevention in sex work settings began to slow transmission, and HIV
prevalence among direct brothel-based sex workers decreased from 42% in 1996 to 14% by 2006. Rapid scale-up of HIV counseling,
testing, care and treatment took place from 2001 to 2011. The expansion of the HIV Continuum of Care established community
linkages to encourage HIV testing and counseling and early care and treatment at district-level hospitals. These
efforts resulted in a decline of HIV prevalence from an estimated 1 .7% in 1998 to a projected 0.7 % in 2011, while
the estimated number of ann ual new HIV infections plummeted from 20,000 in the early 1990s to around 1,300 in
2012. Building on the progress to date, a new initiative, "Cambodia 3.0", aims to achieve the elimination
of new HIV infections by 2020.
Teens to Grown-ups: Falling throug h the Cracks, Lost i n the Crowd or Thriving Adult?
Linda - Gail Bekker (South Africa), Deputy Director of the Desmond Tutu HIV Centre and Associate Professor of Medicine, University
of Cape Town, discussed the challenges facing young people living with HIV as they transition from complete dependence on care
givers and paediatric health services to adult HIV care systems that emphasize self-reliance and individual accountability
for adherence. With adult services perceived as intimidating and impersonal, there are reports of failed transition with consequences of poor adherence, treatment failure and loss to follow up.
This transition has been well described for other diseases, but HIV is unique as a chronic illness because of related
stigma, the relations hip to poverty, the fact that multiple members of one family may be living with or have died from
HIV, and the association with sexual, intravenous and maternal transmission. While some resources are available and
models of transition proposed, most have b een in resourced environments, and there is little recognition of the
need to transition adolescents to adult care in low-and middle-income settings. Consequently, very little
published data is available and systems to track youth into adult care are inad equate and evaluation
of this process and its limitations and successes are not being captured.
HIV, Law and Stigma
Rather than helping forward the goals set by the international community in slowing the spread of HIV, the current legal and
regulatory terrain is actually working actively to undermine HIV prevention and treatment projects, according to Aziza Ahmed
(United States), Assistant Professor of Law, Northeastern University School of Law. Indeed, scientists, public health
practitioners, and commun ity members are often working in legal and policy environments that are structured to
make good public health interventions fail, that stigmatize, and that marginalize the very populations programmes seek to aid.
Ahmed called upon delegates to not only produce knowledge about the HIV epidemic, but to accept the responsibility of creating a
legal and policy landscape that enables the implementation of effective and high quality HIV care, treatment, and service
programmes -- a legal and policy environment that does not discriminate, that does not stigmatize, and does not
marginalize the very people who need support and care.
END
Further information:
The International AIDS Society (IAS) is the world's leading independent association of HIV professionals, with over 16,000 members
from more than 196 countries working at all levels of the global response to AIDS. The IAS members include researchers from all
disciplines, clinicians, public health and community practitioners on the frontlines of the epidemic, as well as policy and
programme planners.
The IAS is lead organizer of the IAS Conference on HIV Pathogenesis, Treatment and
Prevention, which will be held in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, 30 June - 3 July 2013 and
custodian of the biennial International AIDS Conference, which will be held in Melbourne,
Australia, 20 - 25 July 2014.
The Centre of Excellence for Research in AIDS (CERiA)
was established in 2007 to respond to the need to better understand the Malaysian HIV epidemic and to build local
capacity in conducting HIV related research. Since its establishment it has become the leading
Centre in Malaysia conducting HIV related research in various fields including
epidemiology, social behavioural, clinical and laboratory based research.
IAS 2013: Join the conversation
Get the latest conference updates and share your thoughts and ideas t
hrough the IAS 2013
Social Media channels.
We are tweeting - @_IAS2013 - and hope many of you will tweet along with us, using
#IAS2013 to keep the conversation going.
Become a fan of IAS 2013 on Facebook - www.facebook.com/conferenceIAS2013 and stay
in touch with the latest conference updates and developments. Tell us why you are coming
to Kuala Lumpur and what you hope to gain from IAS 2013.
Join the IAS 2013 LinkedIn group, you are welcome to sta
rt new discussions and add your comments to existing threads.
Media contacts:
Onsite Media Centre: +60 32 333 2635
In Kuala Lumpur
Siân Bowen, IAS Senior Manager, Communications
Email: Sian.Bowen@iasociety.org
Mob: +60 11 230 29866
Francesca Da Ros, IAS Communications and Media Officer
Email: Francesca.Daros@iaso ciety.org
Mob: +60 11 230 29877
Michael Kessler, In Toon Media
IAS Media Consultant
Email: michael.kessler@intoon - media.com
Mob: +60 11 230 34899
Zaki Arzmi, IAS 2013 Local Communications Coordinator
Email: zaki@mac.org.my
Mob: +60 16 292 2948
"Reproduced with permission - International AIDS Society"
International AIDS Society
For more HIV and AIDS News visit...
Positively Positive - Living with HIV/AIDS:
HIV/AIDS News
|
