More integration of reproductive health and HIV prevention services needed.

2004 DEC 2 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- Providers of reproductive health services are in a strategic position to make significant contributions to closing the global HIV prevention gap, according to a new analysis published jointly by The Alan Guttmacher Institute (AGI) and the Joint United Nations Program on AIDS (UNAIDS), with the collaboration of the UNFPA (United Nations Population Fund) and the International Planned Parenthood Federation (IPPF).

The analysis, titled "The role of reproductive health providers in preventing HIV," calls for greater attention to the benefits that would accrue from integrating HIV related activities into the reproductive health service set.

Reproductive health providers already offer a wide range of services to millions of women who are now at the center of the global HIV pandemic and are increasingly expanding their outreach to adolescents and to men. Yet their current and potential role as front-line providers of HIV prevention services is largely untapped, according to the report.

Reproductive health providers are a major source of preventive healthcare and are important entry points for HIV prevention for millions of individuals who are at high risk of contracting the virus, including:

* reproductive age women, who account for nearly half of adults living with HIV worldwide;

* young people between 15 and 24, who account for half of all new cases of HIV and more than 13 million unwanted births each year; and

* expectant and new mothers, who account for 630,000 infants worldwide infected with HIV during their mother's pregnancy, labor, and delivery.