The theme of World TB Day 2017 is “Unite to End TB.” AFEW International’s activities are also aimed on ending tuberculosis in Eastern Europe and Central Asia. In Kazakhstan, KNCV and AFEW-Kazakhstan are developing a model for structural collaboration between public health (TB, HIV, primary health care) and non-public sector through the DGIS-funded project in Almaty.
Side Event ‘Addressing and Reversing the Harms of Drug Control in Eastern Europe and Central Asia’ was organised by AFEW International, the Canadian HIV/AIDS Legal Network, the Andrey Rylkov Foundation for Health and Social Justice, and the International Drug Policy Consortium during the 60th Commission on Narcotic Drugs in Vienna in March 2017.
On the photos, there are 15 Kazakhstani people who live with HIV, or who were cured of tuberculosis. The name of the exhibition Life in the Shadow speaks for itself, because due to the human ignorance, the heroes of our photos should hide their diagnosis from others and live with their problem alone in fear. Now they have opened their faces for the exhibition and they are not afraid to share their experiences.
On March 28, 2017, AFEW International and WEB.foundation are jointly organising the Culture Cures & Kills II symposium in de Tolhuistuin in Amsterdam. The symposium will focus on the role of culture in prevention, treatment and care of HIV in Eastern Europe and Central Asia (EECA).
26 applications out of 44 were selected for a small grants to support community-based participatory research (CBPR) projects in Eastern Europe and Central-Asia (EECA) region. The small grants fund is part of a wider programme to build the research capacity of community based organisations in EECA region and increase meaningful participation of the region at the AIDS2018. The Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs provides financial support to the programme.
AIDS Foundation East-West, an international network of civil society organisations that is dedicated to improving the health of key populations, has changed its name to AFEW International. A new logo and communication strategy have been created, and now they are part of the organisation’s identity.
Tajikistan is on the list of countries with a high prevalence of multi-drug resistant TB, and has growing numbers of patients with extensively drug-resistant TB, for which there was no effective treatment available within the country. Bedaquiline, also called by its brand name Sirturo, offers a better chance to cure patients with these forms of TB and will help reduce the transmission of drug-resistant tuberculosis in the community.
Public Foundation “AIDS Foundation East-West in the Kyrgyz Republic” makes a significant contribution to public health of the country in reducing the growth rate of socially significant infections in Kyrgyzstan. The head of AFEW-Kyrgyzstan Natalya Shumskaya is telling what we should expect from the organisation in 2017, and outlines the achievements of the previous year.
HIV remains a significant public health problem in the 31 countries of the European Union and European Economic Area (EU/EEA), with around 30 000 newly diagnosed HIV infections reported each year over the last decade. In a two-day conference organised in collaboration between the Maltese Presidency of the Council of the European Union and ECDC, HIV experts from across the European Union discussed how to reverse this trend and how to prepare Europe to achieve the set target of ending AIDS by 2030.
Why is eastern Europe the only region in the world that still has a growing HIV epidemic? In one of the region’s countries, Russia, more than two thirds of all HIV infections, and 55% of the near 100 000 new infections reported last year, resulted from drug injection.
