HIV prevalence among MSM in Asian cities is consistently higher than HIV prevalence among adults in the general adult population - click to enlarge

A new report by the UN Development Program shows how discriminatory laws against men who have sex with men (MSM) and transgender people undermine the fight against HIV/AIDS in the Asia Pacific region. The report is thorough and exhaustive, but the gist is this:  In 19 of the 48 countries included in the study, sex between consenting male adults is illegal.  Authorities and vigilantes use the legal prohibitions against MSM to harass, intimidate and extort MSM and transgender people. This, in turn inhibits their ability to seek medical help and form other kinds of support groups.  For example, the report shows that "laws banning sodomy discourage the formation of support groups, which are vital for effective peer-based HIV prevention, care and support."

Aside from these laws being an affront to a basic sense of human decency, they are deeply problematic from a public health perspective because HIV prevalence is significantly higher among MSM than the population at large in the Asia-Pacific region.  Check out the chart [right; taken from original posting].

The report actually offers estimates on the number of MSM and transgender people in the Asia-Pacific region. I'm sure how they arrived at these numbers (you'll have to consult the footnotes) but these figures help put into perspective the very large number of people who are at a heightened risk of contracting HIV for the fact that they live in places with discriminatory legal environments.

Estimates of the percentage of men who have ever had sex with another man ranges from 3 to 19 percent in East Asia, 6 to 34 percent in South Asia and 7 to 12 percent in South East Asia. Estimates of the percentage of men who had sex with another man in the last year are 7 to 8 percent for South Asia and 4 percent for South East Asia. Recent estimates of MSM (based on numbers of men who had sex with another man in the last year) include approximately 3.8 million in Bangladesh, 30.5 million in India, 3.8 million in Pakistan, 615,000 in Nepal and 502,000 in Sri Lanka  Other MSM estimates include 560,000 in Thailand, 70,000 in Ho Chi Minh City, 1.6 million in Indonesia, 240,000 in Myanmar and 10 million in China.

Read the complete article on undispatch.com.

Source of data in chart:
*  UNAIDS (2008) Report on the Global AIDS Epidemic
** See footnote 29 in report

Download the PDF of the report.