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Technical Areas
Working
on MDG 6
HIV/AIDS
(target 8 see below)
Area of Family and Community Health
more>>
HIV/AIDS Unit more>>
Dr. Carol Vlassof
Unit Chief,
Regional HIV/STI Plan for the Health
Sector 2006-2015
Within the framework
of the
PAHOs Regional HIV/AIDS/STI Plan,
five critical lines of action constitute the specific strategies to be
undertaken by health authorities in the Americas to halt and begin to
reverse the spread of HIV/AIDS by the year 2015. The critical lines of
action include: strengthening health sector leadership and
stewardship, fostering the engagement of civil society, designing and
implementing effective, sustainable HIV/AIDS/ STI programs, and
building human resource capacity.
more>>
“3 by 5” Plan
PAHO
participated and achieved the goals of the joint World Health
Organization and United Nations global strategy aimed at helping low-
and middle-income countries provide treatment to 3 million people
living with HIV/AIDS by the end of 2005. The plan supports global
leadership, alliances and advocacy; provides urgent, sustained country
support; simplified and standardized tools for delivering
antiretroviral therapy; creating an effective, reliable supply of
medicines and diagnostics; and rapidly identifying and reapplying new
knowledge and success. more>>
Stigma Eradication
Combating the HIV epidemic
requires addressing issues of stigma and discrimination related to HIV
status and
sexual orientation. PAHO is at the forefront at the regional level
by promoting tolerance...
more>>
Multimedia
Message of Mr.
Elias A. Saca
Pres.
of El Salvador for
UNGASS 2006
 watch
video>>
“Advocacy” challenges of
the epidemic in
L.A. & the
Caribbean.
watch
video>>
_______________________________
MALARIA & other Diseases
Health Surveillance & Disease Management
more>>
Dr. John
Ehrenberg
Unit Chief,
Malaria
Great
progress in the cessation and reversal of malaria incidence in the
Americas has been accomplished through strategic planning for the
region. Effective collaborative efforts in terms of technical support
for program implementation, resource mobilization, and initiatives
underline current advancement.
RAVREDA/AMI
The
Amazon Network for the Surveillance of
Anti-malarial Drug Resistance (RAVREDA)/ Amazon Malaria Initiative
(AMI) which covers 8 nations in the Amazon region with
financial support of the
United States Agency for International Development (USAID)
more>>
Tuberculosis
Global Plan to Stop TB, 2006—2015,
Is an
integral evaluation of the actions and the resources necessary in
order to create a strategy to detain TB and execute an impact over the
world burden of TB and to advance the goals of the world association
Stop TB Partnership for 2015.
More>>
Addressing Poverty in TB Control: Options for National TB Control
Programs
Focuses on
WHO's commitment to the promotion of equity and pro-poor policies in
its disease prevention and control activities based on the recognition
of poverty as a major barrier to health and health care. The document
addresses the integration of pro-poor measures in TB control programs
and offers guidance for national TB control programs on the practical
issues involved and options for action.
More>>
Regional Interprogrammatic Meeting on TB/HIV
had as its overall objective to speed up
effective joint response in the Americas on the part of TB and
HIV/AIDS programs to the epidemic of tuberculosis associated with HIV.
More>>
International Workshop on Tuberculosis Control
in Prisons
Sponsored
by the PAHO Regional Program on Tuberculosis, in collaboration
the Gorgas TB Initiative (University of Alabama at Birmingham), held a
workshop on tuberculosis control in prisons/penitentiaries targeted at
prison wardens and heads of national TB programs in Central American
and Caribbean countries. Other countries of the Region participated to
share their experiences.
More>>
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Regional Situation Analysis
Target
7 Of the 27 countries in Latin America and the Caribbean that
have reported on HIV/AIDS, 11 now have an incidence of over 1%, including
five with rates of over 2%, with Haiti’s over 5%. Eight of the 11
high-incidence nations in the region are in the Caribbean. It is estimated
that, as of 2004, a total of 2.4 million people were infected in Latin
America and the Caribbean, 21% of them living in the Caribbean, a
significant increase compared to 2002.
|
MDG 6 |
COMBAT HIV/AIDS, MALARIA AND OTHER DISEASES |
|
Health targets |
|
Health
Indicators |
|
Target
7*
|
Have halted by 2015 and
begun to reverse the spread of HIV/AIDS |
18.
19.
20.
|
HIV
prevalence among pregnant women aged 15-24 years
Condom use rate of the contraceptive prevalence rate
Ratio of school attendance of orphans to school attendance of
non-orphans aged 10-14 years |
* target directly
related to health
In just a few years, the
AIDS epidemic has swept away decades of investment in public health, in
particular through its strong impact on mortality rates and the related
decrease in life expectancy in several of the highest-incidence countries.
This represents a formidable challenge for most of the countries with high
infection rates, especially for prevention and treatment measures.
Looking beyond the
national averages, even in countries with a low prevalence rate at the
national level, there are specific population groups that contain
subpopulations with high prevalence levels, in particular certain cities
where there are population segments consisting of drug users, sex workers,
and men who have sex with men, who have become, as a group, one of the main
sources of heterosexual transmission.
However, the pattern of
infection overall in the Region is no longer that of an epidemic clearly
centering on transmission by men having sex with other men but is now
shifting towards women in all the countries of the region, the result being
a rise in perinatal transmission rates. There is also a “rejuvenation” of
the epidemic, as half of all new cases of HIV infection have occurred in the
population aged 15-24, a change from the tendency seen in the first half of
the 1990s, when cases were concentrated among those aged from 30 to 39.
Adolescents are among the most vulnerable groups. Gender inequities have
also led to a “feminization” of the epidemic and a shift in the male/female
ratio of AIDS cases. In some places, such as Haiti, Dominica, Saint Lucia
and Jamaica, the ratio is close to 1:1, while overall in the Region in the
1990s, there were 4 cases of AIDS in men for each female case.
In some countries of the
region, it is clear that there is still widespread ignorance about HIV/AIDS
among young people. It is estimated that between a quarter and one half of
adolescents between the ages of 15 and 19 in Guatemala, Peru, Haiti and
Brazil are unaware that a person with HIV may show no symptoms of AIDS until
some time has passed. The evidence reveals an enormous gap between a general
awareness that the virus and disease exist and the fuller knowledge required
to make more informed decisions.
The use of condoms is
considered to be the best way of avoiding infection, but it is still limited
even among people who have high-risk sex in countries with a high prevalence
of HIV/AIDS. The HIV/AIDS epidemic is one of the greatest challenges for the
countries in the region. An expansion of activities in this field is
therefore a matter of the utmost urgency.
|
MDG 6 |
COMBAT HIV/AIDS,
MALARIA AND OTHER DISEASES |
| |
Health targets |
|
Health
Indicators |
|
Target 8* |
Have
halted by 2015 and begun to reverse the incidence of malaria and other
major diseases |
21.
22.
23.
24.
|
Prevalence and death rates associated with malaria
Proportion of population in malaria-risk areas using effective malaria
prevention and treatment measures
Prevalence and death rates associated with tuberculosis
Proportion of tuberculosis cases detected and cured under DOTS (Directly
Observed Treatment Short-course) |
* target directly related to
health
Target 8
Malaria
Twenty-one PAHO/WHO
member countries report that the active transmission of malaria is occurring
in some areas. Generally speaking, these areas are less developed and
exhibit marked differences from the rest of the country or territory.
In 2003, about 850,000
cases of malaria were recorded in Latin America and the Caribbean. The
countries reporting the largest absolute number of malaria cases were Brazil
and the countries of the Andean subregion, accounting between them for about
82% of all cases, although the highest risk of transmission is found in the
subregion that includes French Guiana, Guyana and Suriname, where parasitic
incidence exceeded 200 cases per 1,000 inhabitants in that same year.
Tuberculosis
Tuberculosis is another of
the diseases whose incidence is expected to have been reduced by 2015. In
Latin America and the Caribbean, it is estimated that there were 370,000
tuberculosis sufferers in 2002. Of these, some 200,000 were infectious
cases. Over 150 people died each day from the disease. Most tuberculosis
sufferers were young adults at the most productive stage of their lives,
with five women falling ill for every eight men.
To make significant
progress in reducing the prevalence of this disease, it will be necessary to
increase diagnostic coverage and expand directly observed treatment
short-course (DOTS) programmes, which was launched in 1994 in the Region.
Peru, Haiti and Bolivia are the countries with the largest numbers of
tuberculosis cases in Latin America and the Caribbean; the incidence of the
disease is attributed mainly to the social conditions and poverty of these
countries
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