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 Mongolia, a member of the governing
board of the Asia Pacific Coalition on Male Sexual Health (APCOM), may
soon initiate a study to determine how many HIV-positive men are in
Mongolia.
This follows urgent concerns
by officials throughout the Asia Pacific region who are finding statistics
ranging from 5 percent to 32 percent of men having sex with men (MSM)
are HIV-positive.
''Despite MSM having higher
infection rates than the general adult population, the financial investment
for HIV prevention, care and support services for this marginalized
group across the Asia Pacific is abysmally low in national HIV and AIDS
program planning, usually between zero and four percent,'' says Shivananda
Khan, APCOM Chairperson and CEO of Naz Foundation International.
''Less than one in ten MSM
in the region have access to any sort of HIV services, woefully short
of the eight in ten that UNAIDS describes as optimal coverage necessary
for high-risk groups,” noted Khan. “Is it any surprise then
that we really don't have a clear picture of the true extent of the
HIV crisis affecting men who have sex with men?''
Of particular concern is news
that many of these infected men do not know they are carrying the disease
until it has reached an advanced stage. Subsequently, they are placing
their families and communities at risk for contracting the disease.
Prior to developing a program
to tackle the spread of the disease in Mongolia, officials will first
need to work to determine the extent of the problem. For each country
and culture has varying degrees of HIV-positive population and must
be considered separate from surrounding countries, according to officials.
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