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Author: Nargis Harambaeva, Tajikistan Umed Boev, age 41, an ex-prisoner from Tajik town of Bokhtar advocates healthy lifestyle

People in prison have higher rates of drug use and injecting than the general population, and people with drug-related problems make up a significant proportion of people in prison. Among high-risk drug users in the community, many will have repeat experience of prison. The likelihood of having contracted an infectious disease is higher among high-risk drug users with a prison history than among those who have never been incarcerated, and the risk of overdose death in the immediate period after release from prison is high. Such were the talks during the World Health Organization (WHO) international meeting on prisons and health, held in Lisbon, Portugal, on 11–12 December 2017.

Our meeting with David Ananiashvili was appointed in a green courtyard of the Infectious Diseases, AIDS and Clinical Immunology Research Centre. The Centre is located in an old building in one of the central districts of Tbilisi, Georgia. The authorities have been promising a new working space for the centre since long ago, but so far there has been no progress in this process. However, David feels at home – he knows every corner here. He was one of the first people in Georgia who publicly spoke about their HIV status. David is the head of the Georgian Plus Group NGO. Since 2000, the NGO has been implementing various projects to protect the rights of people living with HIV and standing up to stigma and discrimination.

In 2004, Georgia became the first and only country in the Eastern European region that succeeded in ensuring universal coverage by antiretroviral therapy (ART). The government funds treatment with first-generation medication, the rest is funded by the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria. Treatment and testing are free of charge, and if a person seeks assistance at the appropriate time, the assistance is sure to be provided. When observing the dynamics of HIV/AIDS epidemic in Georgia in the past years, positive changes are noticeable right away. Life expectancy and quality have significantly improved in many patients. However, notwithstanding evident achievements in overcoming HIV/AIDS epidemic, the low HIV detection level remains to be the main problem.

As you might know from previous conferences, traditionally there will be a march or demonstration of HIV and AIDS activists. This year the march will take place just before the official opening of the conference at the RAI Amsterdam Convention Centre in the afternoon of Monday, 23rd of July 2018. With this email we would like to introduce us to you and ask you to join us in the march/demonstration to raise our voices for and with people living with HIV. We are aware that we might be a little ahead of time. But it gives us together with you more time to activate more people and to organise a good march in cooperation with the local authorities. Please forward this email to more organisations, people, living with HIV or relatives and friends you know and who might like to become part or support the march. 

More than 30 thousand of Ukrainians are diagnosed with a not active tuberculosis and more than 10 thousand – with an active form. Every day 90 people get their status. These figures are underestimated: according to the World Health Organization (WHO), every fourth patient in the country stays undiagnosed. Back in 1995, WHO announced that Ukraine has exceeded the epidemic threshold – 50 cases per 100,000 people. Since then, the situation has only worsened – the conflict in the East of the country forced 1.5 million residents of Lugansk and Donetsk regions to resettle. In these regions, there were 15% of Ukrainians who were diagnosed with tuberculosis. Every fifth TB patient is HIV-positive.

In the post-Soviet countries there is no single document that would regulate the issues of HIV prevention, diagnosis and treatment for migrants as well as their legal status. Migrant workers do not get the adequate services in the countries where they work which inevitably leads to the decline of their health status and to the growth of the HIV epidemic in the region. This message was the main one in the discussion at the sub-regional technical seminar in Astana, Kazakhstan on February 19-20, 2018. The event was organized by the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) in cooperation with the Joint United Nations Program on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) with the support of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Kingdom of the Netherlands.