APN+ held The ‘Regional Conference on Community Access to Treatment, Care, and Support Services’ for the Asia-Pacific region on 27-28 June 2014 in Bangkok Thailand, aimed at renewed momentum in advocacy in improved access to treatment, care and support. The event was supported by the GF under APN+ round 10 grants, DFAT, UNAIDS RST and GNP+. The Conference covered 3 main thematic areas as outlined below:
- Presentation by the seven countries, namely, Bangladesh, Indonesia, Lao, Nepal, Pakistan, Philippines and Vietnam and sharing the findings of phase I baseline for Community Access to Treatment Survey (CAT-S).
- The session on Sexual and reproductive health and rights (SHRH) raised and discussed issues related to poor access to quality SHRH services to build advocacy momentum for the regionThis session comprised of two parts:
- Intellectual Property Rights (IPR), TRIPS flexibility; and
- Access to treatment on why Health advocacy groups, like PLHIV networks, need continued advocacy for the use of TRIPS flexibilities provided by the World Trade Organization;
- Diagnosis and treatment of Hepatitis C virus (HCV), there is very little knowledge in either the PLHIV community, or the health workers who provide their care. The session highlighted the importance to convince countries to initiate and sustain treatment against HCV infection.
The conference was attended by more than 90 participants from the Asia-Pacific region that included representatives of APN+ national network members, and key stakeholders and representatives from UN Agencies.
