GETTING TO ZERO NEW HIV INFECTIONS PROGRAM
INTRODUCTION
HIV
can be referring as Human Immunodeficiency Virus which is the virus that attack
the immune system of the body. There is no cure and if it is not treated, it
will lead to AIDS.
HIV/AIDS in The South-East Asia region:
Progress and Challenges
“WHAT”
Based on statistics, majority of HIV
disease are from ASEAN countries. Furthermore, ASEAN must do a policy or
program in order to overcome this issue. In Jakarta, Indonesia on 20 until 21
July 2011 was held the First Meeting of the Senior Labor Officials Meeting’s
Working Group on HIV-BCA Prevention and Control in the Workplace (SLOM-WG-HIV).
This meeting will establish ASEAN-BC that supports ASEAN Charter. At 19th
ASEAN Summit held On 17 November 2011 in Bali, Indonesia, the ASEAN-BCA would
contribute to the realization of the collective commitment of ASEAN Member
States in the ASEAN Declaration of Commitment: Getting to Zero New HIV
Infections, Zero Discrimination, Zero AIDS-Related Deaths which was adopted by
the Leaders. Besides that, based on ASEAN-BCA also has contribute on Millennium
Development Goal 6 (MDG 6) of ASEAN Member States to stopping and shifting the
spread of HIV and AIDS. The objectives of ASEAN Initiatives on the Prevention
and Control of HIV and AIDS is to promote greater involvement of employer’
association about prevention and control in HIV and AIDS by ASEAN Members
States.
ASEAN-BCA
assume that each member of ASEAN would carry their roles to curb HIV issue. The
first roles that carried out by members is establish and strengthen national
business coalition on AIDS in ASEAN Member States. The second roles are ASEAN
Member States is encouraging companies to develop and implement policies and
programs on HIV and AIDS prevention and control in the workplace. This
contributes to implement ASEAN Red Ribbon for Outstanding Workplace (ARROW)
Award. Coordinator by one of ASEAN Member States will coordinated roles and
responsibilities of the ASEAN-BCA and coordinator will rotate every two years
among ASEAN Member States on an alphabetical order of National Business
Coalition on AIDS. Furthermore, budget for this program shall bear the
operational costs by the Coordinator and Secretariat roles. It is because the
concerned ASEAN Member State may mobilize resources from various partners.
Besides that, ASEAN Member State can pay their participation costs to the
annual meeting of ASEAN-BCA.
“HOW”
Based on the article, ASEAN has taken
some efforts in order to responses to HIV. First, HIV prevention for key
population. Thru this effort, condom programmes are been introduce for HIV
prevention in the region. As we know, one of the causes of HIV is unhealthy
sex. By introducing the condom programme, the HIV epidemic can be minimized.
For example, condom use in the Indonesia and Thailand are 80% and 90% respectively.
Based on Canada source of HIV and Hepatises C Information (CATIE), condoms
reduce the risk of HIV transmission during sex and thus help to prevent HIV
transmission when they use consistently and correctly. For example, in Cambodia, it had one of
Asia's fastest-growing HIV epidemics in the mid-1990s. They have made an
initiative to reversing the spread of HIV. In 1991, they implement “100 per
cent Condom Use Programme”. This is one of their initiative that reversed the
spread of HIV within 5 years.
Second effort is HIV testing, care and
treatment. Some of the countries in this region are recommend HIV testing for
all population and some are prioritised testing for the high-risk population.
But somehow, the coverage of the testing is low in the region. In Malaysia, the
HIV testing is free of charge at all government health clinics and hospitals.
In addition, HIV Pre-Marriage Screening has been introduced by the Ministry of
Health Malaysia since early 2001 starting in the state of Johor for all Muslim
brides before being made compulsory in all states in Malaysia. It can be done
at any health clinics throughout Malaysia. This screening allows couples to
know their HIV status and subsequently take the best action to prevent the
spread and transmission of the disease to others. Besides, ASEAN need to
improve more on this effort in order to encourage people to do a HIV testing,
care and treatment. This is because the result of this effort is still in low.
By the way, in Singapore we can see the initiative to supports this effort
which is anonymous HIV testing. Anonymous HIV testing was first implemented in
1991 at the Action for AIDS (AfA) Anonymous Test Site (ATS). This is one of
initiative to encourage people who are at risk of contracting HIV to get tested
as soon as possible. By the time, this effort is followed by many countries in
this region such as Malaysia. The patients’ information who tested positive
will be confidential.
Next effort is Prevention of
mother-to-child transmission of HIV (PMTCT). As we know, during pregnancy,
childbirth, and breastfeeding, an HIV-positive woman can pass HIV to her child.
This can cause the spread of HIV and the rate of HIV in this region can
increase if there is no effort to combat it. Myanmar and Thailand are recommended
to have universal access to provider-initiated testing and counselling (PITC)
for pregnant women. Based on Avert, if a pregnant woman has HIV and is not
treated, the virus has a 15% to 45 percent chance of passing from mother to
child. Antiretroviral therapy (ART) and other interventions, however, can
reduce this risk to less than 5%. Furthermore, PMTCT had success in Thailand.
It has reduced transmission rates to <2% and this programme performance also
found to be very effective in identifying gaps and designing quality
improvement.
1.
Ensuring
quality medical care for a major population of the region
The government in the region need to
focus and enhance the quality of health service in order to prevent HIV disease
spread in the region. This is because without proper medical care or health
service provided, it will jeopardize the HIV programmed which is to mitigate
the spread of this disease. This is because all the services are being provided
in hospitality or clinic in their region. The government itself should play a
significant role in build some mainstream equipment of medical care and also
high service of health care that should be provided to main population. Besides
in order to make this HIV programmed become success, they should work cooperate
and closely with the communities at large so that the government can respond
with the current situation of HIV disease and also can enhance community
government programmed like HIV programmed effectively. By providing quality
service medical care, it probably can reduce the risk of transmission of HIV
disease towards community at large with the HIV treatment programmed and can
ensure that this key populations getting equitable access of high services
health care efficiently. Even there is a sufficient resource like the existent
of condom, but the lack or low of health care service can jeopardize the objective
of the programmed as it will not help the region to reduce the rate of HIV
infection in the population of the country. When there is sufficient of
resource and high level of medical care, it will make the programmed are on
track and achieve the objectives of the establishment of the programmed made by
ASEAN members.
2.
HIV
prevention program should be implemented in certain countries of ASEAN member
with a very low prevalence of
This programmed need to be enhance in
certain undeveloped countries that low resources to prevent the spread of the
HIV disease. This is because this certain country is low prevalence to control
the HIV disease in their region. It shows that ASEAN member can cooperate
together and helping this certain country regarding the HIV issue. They should
put this issue as a mainstream issue so that it will not jeopardize the stability
of health in the country. This is because in certain country, they are not know
the dangerous of HIV disease so that by providing fully equipment and education
regarding the HIV programmed in their region, it can slowly mitigate the spread
of the HIV disease. When this HIV programmed successfully implemented by ASEAN
strictly in certain region, it can help those region live in a safety and all
the circumstances affected by HIV term will be reduced effectively. This
certain country needs to provided such as same resources and education
regarding the HIV programmed so that they will know community-government
programmed as to reduce the transmission of risk regarding HIV disease.
3.
Government
as a playmaker in order to control HIV and AIDS
HIV and AIDS, which has been designated
an epidemic, necessitates that every nation take this issue seriously in order
to prevent and combat the disease. Not simply in terms of health, HIV and AIDS
also have the potential to ruin the country's image. As a result, every country
in ASEAN, particularly those with a high prevalence of HIV and AIDS, must make
a concerted effort to ensure that their country is free of the illness.
According to data conducted through a website, 86 percent of persons in
Malaysia are HIV positive, with only 48 percent receiving their treatment.
Thailand and Indonesia, two other ASEAN countries, suffered similar issues and
also have the high statistics among the ASEAN members. Every ASEAN country has
its unique strategy for dealing with this problem. In a region where many
national diseases are driven by transmission among vulnerable communities,
political bravery and commitment are required to repeal or modify laws and
policies that obstruct service access for critical populations and jeopardise
their overall well-being. A small thing
that the government can do is by preparing jobs for their citizens so that they
can make their own money in order to survive in this world, since we know that
the majority of those infected with this disease work in the sex industry. The
government can limit the number of persons infected with this illness by
offering work opportunities. Apart from that, each ASEAN member's government,
through its Ministry of Health, can enact its own legislation, such as
requiring citizens who are HIV or AIDS positive to receive treatment such as
'highly active antiretroviral therapy' (HAART). In order to make sure that
ASEAN can achieve their goal which is free of HIV and AIDS, government should
provide this treatment as free of charge in order to make sure that the
statistic can decreased year by year. It also can help the persons that
positive with HIV to recover fast. To ensure that ASEAN achieves its aim of
being free of HIV and AIDS, the government should provide this therapy at no
cost to ensure that the number continues to decline year after year. It can
also aid those who are HIV-positive in their recovery.
4.
Empower
communities by giving them a central role in the delivery of combined
preventative services.
Empower communities defined as process
of enabling communities to increase control over their lives. If we put a
bigger reliance on the government's involvement in this disease prevention, we
will definitely be wrong. Both the government and communities play a vital role
in ensuring that their cherished countries are free of HIV and AIDS.
Communities can assist their government in a variety of ways, including work
together with other groups, such as non-governmental organisations, to conduct
discussions in hotspot regions such as the prosecution area. Community
empowerment activities include communication likes engage with persons who work
in the sex industry, those who share needles, and others that are possible to
get this virus based on their life so that can enhance awareness about HIV and
AIDS and to create a safe environment. Every individual in that hotspots area
will play their role as one of their effort to combat this disease such as the
doctors and other NGOs. They can give them knowledge and also can conduct
programmes in that certain area. Communities also need to change their stigmas
and give support for those who positive HIV to do treatment. With the community
empowerment, they will feel that their existence is important and they will
freely control their area to make sure that its clean and free from HIV and
AIDS. There’s a lot of things that they can do such as monitor that area and
quickly inform the authority about it, organize some programmes and also can
raise awareness.
CONCLUSION
As a conclusion, based on this article we can see how the Asia countries do a lot of effort by provide a program to achieve the getting to zero HIV infections objectives. Where ASEAN already take important this case for a long time ago but it still have a big gap to achieve the goal. For example, in Thailand and Indonesia where in these countries the users of condom mostly 80% and 90% respectively. As we all know by having a sex with condom is one of method to prevent the increases of number people that get HIV. However, this program also has many challenges that be faces by ASEAN to achieve the goal. Where the challenges are come from the individual itself. So, it is hard and very difficult to the association to overcome it. For instance, the individual does not want to use a condom when having a random sex, it is not because the condom is expensive and also the thing is very easy to get like at 7- eleven but it is because the individual itself have a feeling shy to buy it and pay at the counter that have the cashier person there. This is the one of the reason why there is more people that get infection to HIV and make big gap to the ASEAN achieve this program’s goal.
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