Consolidated Guidelines on HIV Prevention, Diagnosis, Treatment and Care for Key Populations

In these 2014 consolidated guidelines on HIV prevention, diagnosis, treatment and care for key populations, the World Health Organization (WHO) brings together all existing guidance relevant to five key populations – men who have sex with men, people who inject drugs, people in prisons and other closed settings, sex workers, and transgender people – and updates selected guidance and recommendations. These guidelines aim to: provide a comprehensive package of evidence-based HIV-related recommendations for all key populations; increase awareness of the needs of and issues important to key populations; improve access, coverage and uptake of effective and acceptable services; and catalyze greater national and global commitment to adequate funding and services.

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Guidance on Prevention of Viral Hepatitis B & C among People Who Inject Drugs

This guidance on prevention of viral hepatitis B and C among people who inject drugs is the first step in the provision of comprehensive guidance on viral hepatitis surveillance, prevention, and treatment by the World Health Organization. These recommendations are based on systematic reviews of scientific evidence, community values, and preferences and implementation issues.

The focus of this guidance is on low- and middle-income countries, but it applies equally to high-income settings. The WHO, UNODC, UNAIDS technical guide for countries to set targets for universal access to HIV prevention, treatment and care for injecting drug users presents a comprehensive package of interventions for HIV prevention, treatment and care for people who inject drugs. This document has helped to achieve global consensus with high-level political bodies, the United Nations, donor agencies and civil society organizations on adopting a public health response that best addresses HIV in countries facing epidemics of injecting drug use. The nine interventions of this package (see box) are also relevant to the prevention of viral hepatitis, in particular the first two, needle and syringe programmes and opioid substitution therapy.

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Guidance on Prevention of Viral Hepatitis B & C among People Who Inject Drugs – Policy Brief

Technical Guidance on Combination HIV Prevention

This guidance document published in 2011 by PEPFAR is a response to the urgent need to strengthen and expand HIV prevention for MSM and their partners and to improve MSM’s ability to access HIV care and treatment. It furthers PEPFAR’s renewed emphasis on matching interventions and investments with epidemiological trends and needs in order to improve impact. This guidance also builds upon and strengthens international efforts to encourage comprehensive HIV prevention programs for MSM in low- and middle-income countries.

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The Economic Cost of Homophobia and the Exclusion of LGBT People: A Case Study of India

What does exclusion cost? This documents illustrates preliminary findings of a case study that developed and tested an economic model to measure the cost of excluding sexual minorities, especially the LGBT community. The model examines workplace discrimination, health disparities in HIV, suicide, and depression, and concludes that they could cost societies billions of dollars.

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Access to HIV Prevention and Treatment for Men Who Have Sex with Men

The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation commissioned the Global Forum on MSM & HIV (MSMGF) to identify barriers and facilitators of PrEP uptake among MSM globally. The MSMGF took this as an opportunity to strengthen understanding of the structural-, community-, and individual-level factors that influence access to services for MSM more broadly, placing challenges to access within the context of lived experiences and concerns of MSM. Toward this goal, the MSMGF developed a global multilingual online survey to examine barriers and facilitators to service access for MSM around the world.

This report first describes the methods and results of the online survey, followed by the methods and results of the focus group discussions. These sections are followed by a discussion section that explores the barriers and facilitators revealed by quantitative data in the survey, as well as the broader context of these barriers and facilitators as revealed in the focus group discussions. The report ends with a look forward at future directions.

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Advancing the Sexual and Reproductive Health and Human Rights of Men who have Sex with Men Living With HIV

Published in 2010 by GNP+ and MSMGF, Advancing the Sexual and Reproductive Health and Human Rights of Men Who Have Sex with Men Living with HIV is a detailed and comprehensive report that describes the key areas of policy and practice change needed to advance the sexual and reproductive health and human rights of people living with HIV.

The report is also available in French and Spanish.

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Engaging with Men Who Have Sex with Men in the Clinical Setting

This 2011 primer published by the MSMGF is intended to serve as a guide on information related to men who have sex with men (MSM) for physicians, nurses, and other health care providers delivering HIV and primary care services in diverse clinical settings. Longstanding evidence indicates that MSM experience significant barriers to quality health care due to widespread stigma against homosexuality in mainstream society and within health systems. Social discrimination against MSM, or homophobia,a has also been described as a key driver of poor health outcomes in this population across diverse settings. In nearly every country around the world, MSM are disproportionately burdened with HIV and other sexually transmitted infections (STIs) when compared to the general adult population. Higher rates of depression, anxiety, smoking, alcohol abuse, substance use, and suicide have been reported among MSM as a result of chronic stress and disconnection from a range of social services and support mechanisms.

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