Ending AIDS as a public health threat in the South-East Asia Region: progress, challenges and the way forward

Overview

The year 2020 was an important milestone in the acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS) response, both globally and in the Region. Certain key milestones towards ending the AIDS epidemic as a public health threat by 2030 were to be achieved by 2020. These include interim targets drawn from the Political Declaration adopted by the United Nations (UN) General Assembly High-Level Meeting on AIDS in 2016, the Global Health Sector Strategy (GHSS) on human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) 2016–2021, and the Regional Action Plan (RAP) for HIV in South-East Asia, 2017–2021. The year marked the beginning of the Decade of Action towards reaching the 2030 targets, as outlined in the Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) framework.

An estimated 3.7 million people are living with HIV in the WHO South-East Asia (SEA) Region. This amounts to nearly 10% of all people living with HIV globally. In 2019, about 160,000 new HIV infections and 110,000 AIDS-related deaths occurred in the Region. A key feature of the HIV epidemic in the Region is that most new HIV infections occur among key populations (KPs) such as sex workers, men who have sex with men, transgender persons, and people who inject drugs – and their partners.

This report reviews the progress on key HIV-related targets in the Region, with the overall objective of documenting successes and identifying shortcomings, challenges, and specific bottlenecks faced by countries in their national responses. Further, it reviews the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on HIV services, along with the mitigation efforts adopted by countries of the Region. The report also offers future directions based on lessons learnt from good practices in the Region. It will provide a baseline and strategic direction for the upcoming RAP for HIV in the South-East Asia Region (2022–2026).