#EECAAIDS2018

In Georgia, there are not many organisations working with people who use drugs to improve their health and re-integrate them into the society. New Vector is the first self-organisation of drug users not only in Georgia, but also in the South Caucasus. Since 2006, its activists openly oppose the repressive drug policy, fight for the rights of people who use drugs (PWUD), and search for the innovative approaches to resolve health problems. The main goal of the New Vector is to provide harm reduction services and advocate for the health and social programmes, which are vital for people who use drugs.

Representatives of 10 countries took part in the first regional autumn school organized by AFEW, which was held from 30 October to 5 November in the Oy-Karagay gorge, not far from Almaty, Kazakhstan. The school was conducted with the support of the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

Kyrgyzstan is a leading country in the Central Asia in terms of implementation of harm reduction and HIV prevention programs in the correctional settings. Syringe exchange programs have been available in prisons since 2002, and today over one thousand five hundred people receive clean injecting equipment in all twelve correctional facilities. Atlantis rehab centers have been gradually introduced since 2004 for those convicts who made a decision to quit drugs. Currently, eight such centers are functioning, with the ones who have almost succeeded in stopping with drugs continuing treatment in a separate, so-called “clean compound.”

In 2005, more than 300 inmates had tuberculosis in Tajikistan, this year – only 100. The rate of new infections has also been declining: 77 cases in 2016, 59 over the last eight months. Last year, seven prisoners died from mycobacterium tuberculosis, this year we had zero deaths from TB. Almost all correctional institutions have special TB hospitals for 5–10 beds, as in prison settings one TB carrier could infect tens of people within a year.

From early 2018, HIV rapid testing in Kazakhstan will be available based in the non-governmental organizations (NGOs). With the President of Central Asian Association of People Living with HIV and the ‘Kazakhstan Union of People Living with HIV’ Nurali Amanzholov we are talking about advantages, mechanisms and preparatory work associated with this innovative step in fighting HIV.