More than three million people died of AIDS in 2003 and another five million were infected with HIV, bringing the total number of people living with HIV and AIDS to 40 million. (1)

HIV continues to spread across all regions of the world leaving no community untouched. Sub-Saharan Africa continues to be the worst affected region in the world, but even areas like the Middle East and North Africa, which experienced the arrival of HIV relatively late, have since shown increased and worrying levels of infection. Latin America and the Caribbean, the region with highest prevalence of HIV outside sub-Saharan Africa, are also among the most affected areas in the world.

An increasingly disproportionate share of the world’s total HIV/AIDS burden affects the young, the vulnerable and women.

In 2002, more than a third of all people living with HIV were aged under 25 and two-thirds were women. It affects the poorest, most disadvantaged, stigmatized and under-developed communities in the world. And it is with these communities that we are focusing our work.

Since 2000, political commitment and grassroots community action to address HIV/AIDS have become stronger.

But, despite an increase in global funding, there remains an enormous task at hand to provide prevention, care and support services in the quantities now required.

Our goal is a reduction in the global incidence of HIV/AIDS and the full protection of the rights of people infected and affected by HIV/AIDS.

To achieve this goal we aim to integrate HIV/AIDS services into existing sexual and reproductive health policies and programmes, offering comprehensive services and the opportunity to learn lessons about HIV/AIDS-related stigma.

We are calling for political commitment to ensure greater collaboration and are working with partner oganizations to agree standards for making these integrated services work effectively.

In the midst of this unforgiving epidemic we are committed to finding new ways of expressing humanity and care.

Our HIV/AIDS work offers a continuity of services from prevention through to care.

This includes the promotion of, and access to:

• condoms
• voluntary counselling and testing
• management of sexually transmitted and opportunistic infections, such as tuberculosis and hepatitis
• prevention of mother-to-child transmission plus (PMTCT+), where HIV positive mothers are treated as well as their babies
• addressing the sexual health needs of people who are HIV-positive

It is in these areas that IPPF will strengthen, expand and broaden its responses in the next five years.

For more about our work with discrimination, prevention, care and the integration of HIV/AIDS with sexual and reproductive health services, please contact our HIV/AIDS department by emailing info@ippf.org

References
1.UNAIDS and World Health Organization, 2003. 'AIDS Epidemic Update. December 2003.' Introduction, p.4. Geneva: UNAIDS.