Practical Guidelines for Intensifying HIV Prevention

This document from the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) is designed to help countries match and prioritise their public health response to HIV/AIDS. This entails defining the goals, outcomes, outputs, and processes for HIV prevention services to be delivered to the peoples and places where they are most needed. It also entails consistently measuring and tracking whether they are achieving their objectives. These Guidelines provide building blocks [in bold below] to support countries to prioritise and sequence their investments for scaling up their response tailored to the social context of the country and to the most vulnerable populations.

From the Executive Summary:

• "These Guidelines encourage countries to “know your epidemic and your current response”. To know your epidemic requires that countries identify the key drivers of the epidemic focusing on the relationship between the epidemiology of HIV infection and the behaviours and social conditions that impede their ability to access and use HIV information and services. ...UNAIDS and the World Health Organization (WHO) categorise HIV epidemics as low level, concentrated, or generalized scenarios. For planning purposes these Guidelines propose an additional scenario - the hyperendemic scenario.
• "Matching and prioritising the response" entails identifying those populations most-at-risk and vulnerable, gauging the extent to which new HIV infections are occurring within these populations and the extent to which they are consulted and engaged in tailoring the response for their communities.
• Matching and prioritising the response enables countries to “set ambitious, realistic and measurable prevention targets” in relation to their epidemic scenario. This entails defining the goals, outcomes, outputs and processes for HIV prevention services to be delivered to the peoples and places where they are most needed and to constantly measure and track whether they are achieving their objectives.
• These Guidelines provide a synthesis of essential prevention measures required for countries to “tailor your prevention plans” in relation to the epidemic scenarios. They include a synthesis of the essential measures to meet the HIV prevention needs of specific populations or key audiences.
• Strengthening the national response requires that countries “utilise and analyse strategic information”including epidemiological data, new evidence relating to the epidemic, policy and programmatic guidelines, tools, training materials, and best practices."

The document includes tables on tailoring prevention plans through strategic points organised for each level of epidemiological scenario from low to hyperendemic scenarios and an annex of "Prioritised HIV Prevention Measures for Key Audiences" to help countries address the needs of 14 specific populations, including prisoners, recipients of blood, sex workers, transport workers, uniformed services personnel, and women and girls, among other groups.