The ‘Improved TB/HIV Prevention & Care – Building Models for the Future’ project was presented during the Dutch National Congress ‘Soa.Hiv.Seks’ on 1 December 2017 in Amsterdam, the Netherlands. Three working models from Kazakhstan, the Philippines, and Nigeria implemented by AFEW, Hivos and PharmAccess with KNCV Tuberculosis Foundation as the lead agency were shown to the Congress audience.
On December 1, a wide range of activities marked the World AIDS in Ukraine. On this day, the first in Ukraine online test for HIV was presented in Kyiv. It is available at HIVtest.com.ua or via a mobile application ‘HIV test.’ The test contains about two dozen of questions – their number depends on the respondent’s lifestyle. For example, the question “Do you use condoms when having sex or not?” is relevant in Ukraine, where 51% of people living with HIV get infected through the sexual route of transmission.
From 8 July to 20 October 2017, a train carriage went throughout the territory of Russia offering HIV testing services to everyone interested. The campaign was aimed at raising the awareness and increasing the coverage with testing services among the general public. The train offering HIV testing is a project of the Russian Ministry of Health in cooperation with the Russian Railways. The campaign was initiated within the State Strategy to Combat the Spread of HIV in Russia through 2020.
Over 400 students from universities of the CIS countries took part in the first international debate tournament on HIV “SpeakUp: AIDS” in Almaty, Kazakhstan. Among the debate participants, there was the best 2017 speaker in the world representing the international debate movement, the main judge Raffy Marshall (Oxford), students from the major higher educational institutions of the country as well as from the UK, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, Tajikistan, and Sweden. The international panel selected 120 teams to take part in debates on this critical social issue. The tournament was held in line with the British parliament model.
Kyrgyzstan marked the World AIDS Day on December 1 under the Slogan “My Health, My Right.” Competitions, quizzes, a flash mob, debates, a race, a fashion show, and meetings with journalists were dedicated to the World AIDS Day. The most surprising thing during these events was the number of people who publicly disclosed their HIV status.
In her memories, her life is divided into ‘before’ and ‘after’ she learned she had HIV. As strange as it may seem, with the therapy ‘after’ is not a verdict, not a tragedy, not the end… We are meeting 29-year-old Amina (the name has been changed) in one of the coffee houses in Dushanbe, Tajikistan. She came to our meeting after work, short of breath, as she was afraid to be late. Good looking, with a glow of health on her cheeks, a strand of hair appearing from under her neatly tied headscarf, and snow-white teeth. One could say that she was to the full of her health. Sipping her coffee, she tells her story.
Sanat Alemi is one of the civil society organizations (CSOs) supported by the Improved TB/HIV prevention & care – Building models for the future project which gives support to TB patients and their relatives. Founded in 2016 in Almaty, Kazakhstan by a group of ex multidrug-resistant or extensively drug-resistant TB patients, they quickly showed successes through their established self-support groups as well as one-to-one TB patient support. Sanat Alemi is also implementing several community-based activities such as social mobilization, advocacy, and communication to improve TB literacy among people affected by TB, TB/HIV, AIDS and other socially significant diseases (drug abuse, alcoholism, etc), aiming at reducing stigma, discrimination.
AFEW International supports the large-scale campaign “Неопределяемый значит не передающий” (Undetectable means Untransmittable) aimed at overcoming stigma against
The 22nd International AIDS Conference (AIDS 2018) welcomes submission of abstracts for original contribution. Each scientific track is divided into a number of track categories. All abstract authors are asked to choose one scientific track and one track category during the submission process. We encourage work that introduces new ideas, concepts, research and deepens understanding in the field, as well as analyses of both successes and failures.
HIV is rapidly spreading in the east of Ukraine, which for over three years remains the area of military actions. For two years, pregnant women have not been tested for HIV, and medications could only be delivered illegally. The armed conflict between Russia and Ukraine divided Donbass into two parts: areas controlled by the central Ukrainian government and the so-called Donetsk and Lugansk People’s Republics (DPR and LPR). The latter are controlled by pro-Russian separatists.
