UNDP Iran’s GFATM programme organised a workshop at Parsian Evin Hotel in Tehran 10 May 2010, to sensitise policy makers on the issue of HIV/AIDS control and prevention programs among university students in Iran on.  The Workshop was attended by representatives from Centre for Communicable Disease Centre (CDC), I.I.IR Ministry of Health (MOH), and 35 deputies from Tehran University and other high ranking officials.  The workshop was organised as part of GFATM HIV/ AIDS work plan Phase II. This phase looks at sensitising officials and policy makers on the issue of controlling and preventing HIV/AIDS among university students.

After a presentation on the objectives of the workshop by Dr Gouya, Dr Sedaghat made a presentation entitled “Why AIDS?”  Dr Kamali also presented on “AIDS and Youth – an opportunity in the middle of crisis” and Dr Navaei presented a review on studies in Iran.  Following this a report was presented by Dr Nourabadi ort on best practices.  The presentations were followed by a Q&A session hosted by Dr Sedaghat and Dr Kamali.

Participants were also given a workshop package that included booklets on HIV/AIDS, a copy of a quarterly magazine called Aasib Penhan, a monthly magazine called Payam Moshaver (Counsellor’s Message e), a CD entitled “What We Should Know about Drug Addiction and AIDS”, and a CD containing the slides from the presentations. As a result of participation in this workshop, these policy makers are expected to include HIV/AIDS awareness raising among university students in the policies they will be setting.

Training policy makers about HIV/AIDS control and prevention programs is a critical approach to the spread of these diseases and can facilitate the intervention being conducted by the health system.  The workshop aimed to educate public health policy makers from non-medical universities, and sensitise them in line with adopting support programmes and strategies on HIV/AIDS prevention at university level, in order to boost participation among executives and raise awareness among university students regarding any possible high-risk behaviours.

The first reported HIV infection in Iran was discovered in 1987.  Since then the situation rapidly changed with high prevalence of HIV among drug users.  In order to fight this serious challenge and to support the country’s progress towards achieving the sixth Millennium Development Goal (MDG), which is to combat diseases such as HIV/AIDS and malaria, the Prevention and Control of HIV/AIDS in the Islamic Republic of Iran through Public, Civil Society and Private Partnership project was initiated in 2005.

Through effective cooperation between the CDC department of MOH, Ministry of Education and the Prisons Organisation, theproject has been able to tackle sensitive issues such as the needs of sex workers and other at risk groups in dealing with the stigma of HIV/AIDS.  The government’s approach to openly address the problem in recent years and the success of this project has brought the country international recognition. There is now a growing trend of civil society organisations, and community leaders, who are willing with the issues of prevention, stigma and discrimination at local grass-roots levels.

The Prevention and Control of HIV/AIDS in I.R. Iran

In Iran, the country's successful health policy has controlled much of communicable diseases and is providing Primary Health Care Services for the majority of the population. But diseases such as HIV/AIDS are a real threat, and although current HIV/AIDS prevalence rates are low, the danger of cumulative processes taking hold are very real, and Iran is now gearing up to protect itself on this front.

UNDP works in close partnership with the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria (GFATM), launched in 2001. The Global Fund is one of the key sources of financing for the world's response to the epidemic. UNDP was chosen to act as the Principal Recipient (PR) of the grant related to the Global Fund’s project to fight HIV/AIDS in Iran in 2003, which has been renewed in 2007. In its role as the PR, UNDP oversees and makes sure the execution of the Program occurs in accordance with the terms of its global agreement with the Global Fund.

The GFATM project involves vast ranges of partners including governmental ministries, NGOs, private sector and UN agencies and pays special attention to women, girls and youth as the more vulnerable groups. Since late 2003, the GFATM process has supported a series of capacity building workshops and meetings with the aim of familiarizing the stakeholders with both UNDP and GFATM procedures for programming and implementation.

The overall goal for the project is to support Iran’s response in controlling the growth of HIV prevalence and incidence. This will be approached through maintaining HIV prevalence among the general population at less than 0.1 percent and keeping HIV prevalence among high-risk groups below 25 percent by the end of 2010.

During the first and second phases of the project, educational instructions for trainers and faculty

members were prepared and published; 30 workshops for 236 faculty members were held; an educational book for teachers was written, published and distributed (300,000 copies); a workshop was held for the Ministry of Education staff; an educational CD for teachers was produced and distributed. Also 251,059 teachers were trained in 15 provinces through four-hour courses on how to raise HIV/AIDS awareness and knowledge among students.

Furthermore, an educational instruction was created for the training of Parents and Teacher Association (PTA) consultants; a series of five workshops were held in Tehran for 464 of them and the teachers’ book was updated with the help of university professors. In addition, 97 patients have been receiving antiretroviral drugs; more than two million condoms have been distributed and 13 Behavioral Surveillance System (BSS) sites have been established to monitor disease trends and impact indicators.

A total of 300,355 university students, prisoners and their family members (people belonging to at-risk and high-risk groups) have been reached through HIV/AIDS peer education. Altogether 187 Voluntary Counseling and Testing Centers (VCTs) have been established or upgraded with the help of the Global Fund grant. With the facilitation by UNAIDS, nine positive clubs have been established to provide PLHIV with psychosocial support and to promote cooperation of CSOs with medical universities. In addition, 1,187 PLHIV have been trained to support their peers.

The project has also conducted extensive work to reduce the risk of HIV infection among IDUs by placing 2,000 people on Methadone Maintenance Therapy (MMT). With the support of the project, 7,173 prisoners have been able to use the services provided by the VCTs. In addition, 12 hotline centres have been established across the prisons of the country.  In order to strengthen blood screening, the Iran’s Blood Transfusion Organization has been equipped with advanced laboratory equipment. The Round 8 proposal has been approved and the grant agreement is expected to be signed before the end of 2009.

For more information, please see:

http://undp.org.ir/index.php/component/content/article/95