USAID conducts HIV prevention workshop for NGOs and health sector in Almaty

In Central Asia, injecting drug users are vulnerable to contracting HIV through contaminated needles and can unknowingly contribute to the spread of HIV. As part of its work to prevent the spread of HIV in Central Asia, the USAID Quality Health Care Project has invited 20 participants, including managers of NGOs that work with injecting drug users, representatives from the governmental health care sector and international partners, to attend the workshop. Two Project experts, with over 20 years of international experience in HIV prevention for injecting drugs users, will conduct the workshop. They will introduce and encourage discussion on topics related to HIV prevention and harm reduction, including outreach work; needle and syringe exchange programs; safe injecting practice; medication assisted therapy; anti-retroviral therapy; harm reduction in prisons; and strategic planning for harm reduction programs. The goal of the workshop is to build the capacity of NGO managers and health sector officials to design, manage and monitor HIV prevention programs for injecting drug users, the press service of the US Diplomatic Mission to Kazakhstan reports.

Over the past decade, USAID has worked to prevent the spread of HIV in Central Asia and to improve the quality of care received by people living with HIV. Over the next five years, the USAID Quality Health Care Project will work to improve the health status of Central Asians by building the capacity of public health systems to better meet the needs of vulnerable groups and to improve public health responses to regional health priorities, especially HIV/AIDS and tuberculosis.

The Quality Health Care Project is one of the many assistance projects supported by the American people through USAID. Since 1992, the American people through USAID have provided more than $550 million in programs that support Kazakhstan's democratic institutions, social sector, and economic growth. For more information about USAID programs, please visit our website at http://centralasia.usaid.gov .