Publications

With funding from USAID under USAID's Cooperation with ASEAN through the AWP II, Futures Group/POLICY Project (currently known as USAID | Health Policy Initiative) held a regional dialogue was in December 2005 in Kuala Lumpur to build collaboration among policymakers from the health sector, drug control sector, and civil society to scale up HIV prevention, treatment, and care services for IDUs. Following the dialogue, the Malaysian Ministry of Health developed an advanced training curriculum on HIV prevention, treatment, and care for IDUs. Prepared with support from Family Health International and in collaboration with the World Health Organization's Western Pacific Regional Office and Regional Office for South-East Asia, this is the first curriculum in Asia covering treatment and care for HIV-positive IDUs. The ASEAN Regional Training Course on HIV Prevention, Treatment, and Care for IDUs was held August 28–September 6, 2006, in Bangkok to build the capacity of clinicians working in HIV to address the particular needs and clinical problems experienced by HIV-positive IDUs. The training's 19 participants came from Cambodia, Indonesia, Lao PDR, Malaysia, Philippines, Thailand, and Viet Nam.

As part of USAID's collaboration with ASEAN through the Work Programme on HIV and AIDS III (2006–2010) (AWPIII), USAID | Health Policy Initiative, Task Order 1 convened an ad hoc expert working group and provided technical assistance to assess the policy environment and explore inter-country public health policies and law enforcement issues around scaling up the treatment, care, and support for IDUs in ASEAN countries. Indonesia, Malaysia, and Viet Nam were selected as focus countries for this activity. An important aspect of the scale-up effort was to explore the policy and program issues related to the implementation of the curriculum piloted under AWPII.