August-September 2022 – Kyrgyzstan – UNODC, with the support of UNAIDS and USAID, organized a series of trainings for heads of city and region divisions of the Ministry of Interior in two localities of Kyrgyzstan - Osh and Issyk-Kol. During the trainings in August and September, a total of 52 law enforcement officers have received information on national and strategic documents on the prevention of HIV and tuberculosis, essential legislative regulations for the organization of daily operations that would ensure the elimination of legal barriers hampering the access to HIV and tuberculosis for key populations.
Representatives of the AIDS centres from the selected localities presented the current epidemiological situation. The number of HIV infections continues to rise in the country, with a 31% increase between 2016 and 2021. HIV infection mainly affects people of working age (20-49 years). In recent years, there has been a continuing trend toward an increase in the number of women among PLHIV, which accounted for 43.6% of newly identified persons in 2020. There are 698 registered children under 15 living with HIV in the country (6.7% of PLHIV).
The spread of HIV infection occurs predominantly among key populations who are at increased risk of infection, but in recent years an increasing number of cases have been detected among people who do not belong to any of the key population groups. Stigmatization and discrimination against people living with HIV, TB, and representatives of key populations lead to loss of patients at the stages of the service cascade, and refusal to participate in prevention, testing and treatment programs. Moreover, sessions from community-based organizations on their activities included documented cases of human rights violations by law enforcement officers as well as recommendations to strengthen cooperation between law-enforcement bodies and civil society that would ensure an effective and people-centred response to HIV.
