Welcome increase to AusAID funding for the Asia Pacific region 

The announcement of $3 million in new funding to curb the transmission of HIV in Indonesia, PNG and Myanmar has been welcomed by Australia’s peak community based HIV organisation.

The money, to be spent over the next three years on programs focusing on men who have sex with men (MSM), may be modest given the demonstrated need but shows the Australian government is beginning to honour the priority it accorded MSM in the AusAID HIV Strategy launched in April.

“There is now repeated scientific evidence confirming rapidly escalating HIV epidemics among men who have sex with men in all the major Asian cities,” said Australian Federation of AIDS Organisations (AFAO) Executive Director Don Baxter.

“The authoritative report by the Commission on AIDS in Asia last year indicated that sex between men will contribute to 46% of all new infections by 2020 if prevention programs remain unchanged - the largest contribution to new infections in the region.

“Yangon and Bangkok now have more than one in four MSM infected with HIV; Jakarta, Beijing, Ho Chi Minh City have steeply rising rates of infection and AFAO is particularly concerned about Manila and other major cities of the Philippines - with very high rates of risky behaviour creating a time-bomb set to explode.

“In neighbouring PNG it is particularly difficult to mount effective responses, as the government and health systems barely operate in parts of the country and surveillance data has only recently started asking about sex between men. So we cannot accurately assess the extent of MSM transmission.

“The AusAID program in PNG has already facilitated some innovative programs which we hope this funding will help to expand.

“AFAO looks forward to Australia's funding for MSM HIV prevention programs growing over the coming years, so that the disastrous rate of HIV infections in these populations can be reversed.”