What's New

The Global Fund was among the earliest and strongest advocates for addressing the gender inequality that fuels the HIV epidemic. It is proud to be a leader on gender equality, engaging political leaders to speak out on gender equality and pursuing an active partnership with the education and social development sectors. When we imagine a world where every community is focused on gender equality, we can clearly see a more just and healthy world. We cannot achieve any of the Sustainable Development Goals unless gaps in gender equality and equity improve. As such, addressing gender inequality is a high-level strategic objective in the proposed Global Fund strategic framework for 2017-2022. This report present how the Global Fund is advancing gender equality, and investing in women and girls.

The Ministry of Public Health (MoPH) of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan is very pleased to present this newly revised Second Version of the Prison Health Services Strategy (PHSS) 2015/1394. Prisoners and juveniles are part of general community of Afghanistan. Based on the laws they are kept for a specific period of time in detention places. All rights of the prisoners and juveniles detainees are in place. Because of that the MoPH created prison health department according to its policies and strategies. The MoPH developed PHS strategy and package in order to provide health services to this vulnerable group of people. This revision is based on the increased in the number of prisoners, prisoners’ health needs, and lessons learnt from the implementation of the first version of the Prison Health Services (PHS) Strategy.

Far too many women, children and adolescents worldwide still have little or no access to essential, good-quality health services and education, clean air and water, adequate sanitation and good nutrition. They face violence and discrimination, are unable to participate fully in society, and encounter other barriers to realizing their human rights.2,6,7 As a result, as the MDG era draws to a close, the annual death toll remains unacceptably high: 289,000 maternal deaths, 2.6 million stillbirths, 5.9 million deaths in children under the age of five—including 2.7 million newborn deaths—and 1.3 million adolescent deaths.8-10 Most of these deaths could have been prevented. Many more people suffer illness and disability and fail to reach their full potential, resulting in enormous loss and costs for countries both today and for future generations. This updated Global Strategy, spanning the 15 years of the SDGs, provides guidance to accelerate momentum for women’s, children’s and adolescents’ health. It should achieve nothing less than a transformation in health and sustainable development by 2030 for all women, children and adolescents, everywhere.

All women, children and adolescents have the human right to the highest attainable standard of health—the Global Strategy is a roadmap for achieving that right. To build on the success of the previous Global Strategy (2010-2015) and the Every Woman Every Child movement, which acted as a platform to accelerate the health-related Millennium Development Goals, women, children and adolescents must be at the heart of the Sustainable Development Goals. The Global Strategy strives for a world in which every mother can enjoy a wanted and healthy pregnancy and childbirth, every child can survive beyond their fifth birthday, and every woman, child and adolescent can thrive to realize their full potential, resulting in enormous social, demographic and economic benefits. The Global Strategy is intended to inspire political leaders and policy-makers to further accelerate their work to improve the health and well-being of women, children and adolescents. It is also intended as a guide to enable people and communities to drive change, claim their rights and hold leaders to account. 

Each year, millions of women and children die from preventable causes. These are not mere statistics. They are people with names and faces. Their suffering is unacceptable in the 21st century. We must, therefore, do more for the newborn who succumbs to infection for want of a simple injection, and for the young boy who will never reach his full potential because of malnutrition. We must do more for the teenage girl facing an unwanted pregnancy; for the married woman who has found she is infected with the HIV virus; and for the mother who faces complications in childbirth.

This is the International Network of People who Use Drugs’ (INPUD) Consensus Statement on Drug Use Under Prohibition. It focuses on human rights, health, and the law in relation to people who use drugs. The document is informed by the perspective of those who are so catastrophically impacted by global prohibition and by the so-called ‘war on drugs’: people who use drugs themselves.2 Large numbers of verbatim quotations are included, with this document being driven by the voices of representatives of organisations of people who use drugs. This document highlights the outcomes of the war on drugs. It makes clear that the war on drugs is, in reality, a war on people who use drugs, and a war on the communities in which they live.

Despite extraordinary progress against HIV, tuberculosis and malaria in the last 15 years, human rights barriers are preventing millions of people from being able to access prevention, treatment and care. People living with HIV and TB still experience stigma and discrimination because of their health status; women and girls confront widespread gender inequality and violence; sex workers, men who have sex with men, transgender people, people who use drugs, prisoners, migrants and refugees are being driven away from health care and marginalized by harsh legal and social environments. Because of human rights barriers, the people most affected by HIV, TB and malaria are often the ones with the poorest access to health services. We will never be able to end the epidemics without addressing these barriers.

Without universal access to quality health care, millions of people die unnecessarily every year, and preventable diseases including AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria continue to ravage families and communities. More than a billion people lack access to basic health care, and in many parts of the world, one-third of all households have to borrow money or sell assets to pay for essential health services. Universal health coverage aims to ensure that everyone, everywhere can access quality health services without suffering financial hardship.

Syphilis is a systemic, sexually transmitted infection caused by the bacterial spirochaete, Treponema pallidum. If it is not treated adequately in the primary, acute stage, it leads to chronicity and many adverse systemic outcomes.  In more than 50% of cases, untreated syphilis in pregnant women can result in numerous adverse outcomes of pregnancy including stillbirths, premature or low birth weight infants, neonatal deaths or birth of a congenital syphilitic baby. Congenital syphilis is an easily preventable and curable disease, which can be eliminated through effective screening of pregnant women for syphilis and adequate treatment of those infected.

- The first HIV case was detected in 1988. - The key populations are as follows: - People who inject drugs (PWID) - Sex workers and their clients (Male and Female) - Men who have Sex with Men (MSM) and transgender people - Male Labor Migrants and their wives - Prison Inmates - Heterosexual transmission is dominant - HIV prevalence among adult population in the country is below 1%