According to the Republican AIDS Center, the total number of HIV positive citizens in Tajikistan has reached 10 thousand people, one third of them are women. Since 2004, women with HIV have given birth to 1,000 children, 600 of these children have no HIV. Each year the Republican Network of Women Living with HIV helps at least 5-6 young HIV positive people to find their spouses.
NGOs play a crucial role in the development of effective HIV/AIDS responses. Non-governmental organisations meaningfully involve community key population groups for a better understanding of their needs. The experts are saying that the limited space that NGOs are allowed to maneuver in, is threatening the effectiveness of national and regional policies to contain and stop the growth of the HIV epidemic in the region. AFEW International’s experts Janine Wildschut and Magdalena Dabkowska conducted a mixed-methods research to explore the process of shrinking civil society space in the EECA countries, how this affects NGOs and how they are coping with it. With this research, AFEW has gained more insights and learned how NGOs are currently dealing with those challenges. The research is part of AFEW’s regional approach within Bridging the Gaps: health and rights of key populations project.
The estimate number of people who use injected drugs (PWID) in Kyrgyzstan is about 25,000 people. Many of these people are women. Such is the data from the research that was conducted within the framework of the Global Fund’s grant in 2013. Within the framework of the project Bridging the Gaps: health and rights for key populations, AFEW-Kyrgyzstan decided to develop a clinical guideline to care in pregnancy for women who use drugs as there were no modern standards for working with women who use drugs in the country before.
While several years ago Tajikistan was concerned with young people being into opiates and stronger synthetic drugs, today there are concerns about the new-generation drugs – so-called spices. The official reports of law enforcement agencies fail to contain any data on the seizure of spices. However, a quick survey among the young people showed that those smoking blends have long been popular in the country.
In Kazakhstan, the key alarming trend of the recent years is the growing sexual transmission of HIV. Before, most people in Kazakhstan contracted HIV when sharing injecting equipment, but now most infections are transmitted through sexual contacts. As of today, there are about 29,000 of Kazakhstani and about 2,000 of foreign citizens living with HIV in Kazakhstan.
83 organisations from the whole world signed the letter. We asked to reconsider the position of Prof M. Kazatchkine as UN Special Envoy for EECA, as he is in an excellent position to create a momentum to raise awareness on the disruptive situation the epidemics has caused in the region. Prof. Michel Kazatchkine played a crucial role in mobilizing local authorities, (inter)national civil society, donors, researchers and other relevant groups to come to better outcomes to the UNAIDS indicators as we see now. As a result, he enjoys great support from communities in the region.
As reported by the Infectious Diseases, AIDS and Clinical Immunology Research Centre, around 600 to 700 new HIV cases are registered in Georgia annually. Although every citizen is able to receive publicly-funded free treatment, this is insufficient to end HIV. NGO Real People, Real Vision is a member of East Europe and Central Asia Union of People Living with HIV (PLHIV), which has implemented interesting projects on prevention, support and mobilization of people involved in HIV treatment. Discrimination and stigmatisation of HIV-positive people is just one of the problems obstructing prevention of HIV epidemic in Georgia. This and other topics are part of our conversation with Lasha Tvaliashvili, the initiator of multiple video-experiments and the Executive Director of Organization of PLHIV Real People, Real Vision.
Kyrgyzstan has adopted new legislation on drug-related crimes. Amendments have been introduced into a number of national legal codes within the broad judiciary reform in the country. The amendments will come into force starting from 2019. Initiators of the reform declare the ideas of humanisation and decriminalisation, but the practitioners and the community expect an opposite outcome.
From 2018, opioid substitution therapy (OST) programme in Ukraine is financed by the Government. Activists are asking international organizations for a backup to prevent disruptions in the supply of life-saving medications. The Government of Ukraine plans to independently procure substitution therapy programme medications in 2018. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), over 10 thousand people received therapy last year at 178 institutions throughout the country. It is planned to double the number of patients in 2018.
Almost 100 researchers from Eastern Europe and Central Asia (EECA) have received mentorship and expert support through the mentorship program that was established by AFEW International together with Amsterdam Youth Force and Eurasian Harm Reduction Association (EHRA). Applicants for XXII International AIDS Conference 2018 have received support with editing, translating, and structuring their work according to the abstract requirements.
