WORLD AIDS DAY COMMEMORATED IN ARMENIA

armradio.am
01.12.2009 11:45

The Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) Armenia office
in partnership with the Government of Armenia commemorates the World
AIDS Day under the theme "Universal Access and Human Rights".

That means countering any form of HIV-related stigma and
discrimination. It means ensuring access to HIV information and
services for those most in need. It means removing punitive laws
that prevent IDUs, SW, MSM and other marginalized population to
access HIV prevention services, eliminating laws that discriminate
and criminalize based on HIV status. It means addressing violence
against women and girls.

Michel Sidibe, Executive Director of UNAIDS said "On this WAD we
are filled with both hope and concern. Hope because significant
progress has been made towards universal access. New HIVinfections
have dropped. Fewer children are born with HIV. And more than 4
million people are on treatment. Concern because 28 years into the
epidemic the virus continues to make inroads into new populations;
stigma and discrimination continue to undermine efforts to turn back
the epidemic."

"I am pleased that under the leadership of Armenian Government and
Armenian Civil Society and with joint efforts and support from many
other partners and UN organizations in Armenia, Armenia has managed to
make a real progress in keeping the numerous Government commitments
towards achieving the targets set in 2001 UNGASS declaration
of Commitment, 2006 Universal Access General Assembly Political
Declaration and MDG, namely:

External resources in support of National AIDS response were mobilized
from the GFATM at the amount of around 19 million euro for the period
2009-2015

AIDS Law was amended and endorsed in 2009 eliminating mandatory testing
(with exception of blood and organ donors)

Methadone therapy has been registered in the country and a center
for provision of methadone substitution treatment started operating
at the national Narcological centre in October 2009

Free-of-charge HIV treatment is provided to all people in need. Six
anti-retroviral drugs are included into the list of essential drugs
to be freely available to persons affected by the disease.

The coverage of harm reduction interventions for IDUs is maintained at
60%, the coverage of SWs by HIV prevention interventions has increased
from 25.1% in 2006 to 57% in 2008.

All HIV infected pregnant women receive a complete course of ARV
prophylaxis

HIV/TB co infection is now in focus: around 50% of TB patients are
referred for HIV testing

Although all these achievements we still have clear challenges in
front of us:

The National HIV Program implementation dependence on the external
funding puts at risk sustainable implementation of HIV prevention
and treatment activities, since ART is mainly covered by the Global
Fund resources

Stigma and discrimination towards people living with HIV, affected
people, most at-risk populations remain the main constraint to an
effective response to the epidemic

Success in AIDS programs provides a powerful mechanism for
strengthening health systems and promoting human rights and
development programmes. We must continue doing what works, but we
must also do more with less resource. We must improve cost efficiency
of applied HIV interventions and programs in order to achieve MDG"
said Manoela Grozdanova, UNAIDS Country Coordinator for Armenia,
Azerbaijan, Georgia.