1-U=U AT GOVERNMENT/ NATIONAL LEVEL

No data available. 

 

2-Sensitization/ Training of ​PLHIVs, community advocates, service providers and/or CBOs ​

No data available. 

Comment / Additional information

There should be capacity building sessions for the communities working at community organization so that's why they can sensitize the community at grass root level. All the PLHIV`s should be empowered through capacity building sessions and technical associations for the better future.

 

3-Incorporating U=U messages in relevant community outreach, education info and social media campaigns

No data available. 

 

4-COUNTRY CHALLENGES AND BARRIERS

Like many countries in the region, a challenge facing Pakistan is the lack of registered products. Difficulties in securing a supply chain and lack of competition drives up costs. Besides, most countries like Pakistan also do not have quality assurance systems in place. 

Though there has been progress towards HIV prevention in Pakistan, however, stigma, discrimination and punitive legal environments prevent many people from key populations from accessing  services.

Moreover, Pakistan’s health system has a limited capacity to address the HIV spread in the country, with its current resources. There is an obvious scarcity of resources at the preventive, diagnostic and curative level.

Transgender identity and transgender rights have been increasingly accepted at a national level in Pakistan and in 2009 a third gender was formally recognised. Advancing this further, an Act protecting the rights of transgender people were passed in Pakistan in 2018. This Transgender Persons (Protection of Rights) Act 2018 allows transgender citizens to have their gender identity reflected on their national ID cards and all other official documents such as passports and education certificates, and prohibits discrimination in workplaces, schools and health care settings. Despite such progress, however, stigma, discrimination and punitive legal environments prevent many people from key populations from accessing testing services.

As the adjacent table captures, transgender people and sex work are both criminalized in Pakistan, and same-sex activities are punishable by death. Besides, both adolescents and married women need consent from parents and spouse respectively for accessing HIV testing services.     

Source: https://www.aidsdatahub.org/resource/pakistan-country-data-2020

Therefore, even though testing is generally better among sex workers, transgender people and men who have sex with men than it is among people who inject drugs, all these groups struggle to access testing services in certain contexts, particularly when they are criminalised.



 

 

 

 

 

 

 

References

  1. prepwatch.org
  2. avac.org
  3. Country progress report - Pakistan, Global AIDS Monitoring, 2020
  4. https://www.aidsdatahub.org/resource/pakistan-country-data-2020
  5. http://lawsandpolicies.unaids.org/country?id=KHM&lan=en
  6. WHO, Unitaid, and UNAIDS meeting on HIV self-testing and innovative testing approaches in Asia and the Pacific Region: Country progress and plans, December 2020 (https://unitaid.org/assets/PrEP-innovation-and-implementation-in-Asia-and-the-Pacific-Meeting-Report-2020.pdf)
  7. Guidelines on HIV Self-Testing and Partner Notification: Supplement to Consolidated Guidelines on HIV Testing Services, World Health Organization, 2016 (https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK401666/)
  8. PrEP innovation and implementation in Asia and the Pacific: Meeting Report, UNAIDS, Unitaid and WHO in association with the Institute of HIV Research and Innovation (IHRI), December 2020  (https://unitaid.org/assets/PrEP-innovation-and-implementation-in-Asia-and-the-Pacific-Meeting-Report-2020.pdf)
  9. Asia-Pacific Regional Expert Group Meeting on Reviewing Implementation of Commitments from the Asia-Pacific Intergovernmental Meeting on HIV AIDS Beyond 2015, ESCAP, 2018 (https://www.unescap.org/events/asia-pacific-regional-expert-group-meeting-reviewing-implementation-commitments-asia-pacific) 
  10. HIV Self-Testing Strategic Framework A Guide For Planning, Introducing And Scaling Up, WHO, October 2018 (https://apps.who.int/iris/bitstream/handle/10665/275521/9789241514859-eng.pdf)
  11. HIV and AIDS in Asia & The Pacific: Regional Overview (https://www.avert.org/professionals/hiv-around-world/asia-pacific/overview#HIV_testing_and_counselling_(HTC)_in_Asi)
  12. UNAIDS Data 2020 (https://www.unaids.org/sites/default/files/media_asset/2020_aids-data-book_en.pdf)
  13. WHO and partners urge countries to fast-track implementation and scale-up of HIV self-testing and other innovative HIV testing approaches in Asia and the Pacific, March 2021 (https://www.who.int/news/item/16-03-2021-who-and-partners-urge-countries-to-fast-track-implementation-and-scale-up-of-hiv-self-testing-and-other-innovative-hiv-testing-approaches-in-asia-and-the-pacific)