This document is a call to action and a road map to halt the HIV and
hepatitis epidemics among people in the Asia Pacific region who use
drugs. It is a collective product prepared on behalf of the United
Nations Regional Task Force on Injecting Drug Use and HIV for Asia and
the Pacific. The strategy is designed to provide a regional framework,
and it identifies issues and priorities and provides guidance to
countries in the region for developing national strategic responses over
the next six years. It shows the important link between halting the HIV
epidemic and health and development, and will help countries achieve
United Nations Millennium Development Goal 6 that calls for a freeze and
a reverse in the spread of HIV by 2015. The strategy also addresses new
challenges and the responses required to overcome them, including the
diagnosis and treatment of the hepatitis C co-infection and the need for
evidence-based drug treatment for people who use methamphetamines. All
the responses to these challenges should be guided by strategic
information and grounded in the meaningful involvement of people who use
drugs.