Bishkek – On August 24-26, 2015 PF “AIDS Foundation East-West” (AFEW) organized a training for 20 penal medical staff of the State Service on Penalty Execution of the KR on HIV testing and counseling. The participants learned about the new national clinical protocol on HIV testing and counseling. The doctors also had an opportunity to practice their counseling skills under supervision of experienced trainers, which will help them to ensure early diagnostics of HIV among prisoners and timely treatment. The training was funded by the US Agency on International development (USAID) under the HIV React Project.

"National clinical protocols on HIV have changed in recent years. This training is a great opportunity not only to learn new recommendations in this field, but also discuss problems and achievements in diagnosis and treatment of HIV in institutions penitentiary system" said Natalia Shumskaya, chairman of AFEW.

Prisoners are considered to be one of the most-at-risk-population in terms of contracting HIV. This is why a they are a special focus of the USAID-funded HIV React project. According to the Republican AIDS Center, HIV prevalence in the detainment is 7.6%.  Therefore, prison medical staff works with HIV-positive patients much more often than doctors in the civil sector.

The training was part of the USAID-funded capacity building efforts aimed at improving availability, accessibility and quality of HIV prevention and treatment services in the detainment. Just in the first year of implementation, the project trained more than 200 medical and nonmedical personnel of the State Penitentiary Service on care for people living with HIV and those with drug addiction in detention. Non-medical personnel also learned about the basic provisions of the Instruction on HIV prevention for law enforcement bodies and penitentiary institutions.

Today international HIV efforts are aimed at the “90-90-90” goal. It means that y 2020, 90% of all people living with HIV shall know their HIV status, 90% of all people with diagnosed HIV infection shall receive sustained antiretroviral therapy, 90% of all people receiving antiretroviral therapy shall have viral suppression. Modeling suggests achieving this ambitious goal will allow to avert HIV epidemic all around the globe by 2030. It will have tremendous impact on economics and healthcare.