On June, 6 in Dushanbe a Round Table on protecting of health of Tajik migrants was held on the basis of Republic AIDS Prevention Center.
The purpose of the meeting that gathered together the staff of the AIDS Center, the patient community, specialists from NGOs in the region and host countries was to discuss the operation of the algorithm for remote registration of citizens of Tajikistan with HIV living abroad, and to formulate further steps to improve access of migrants to HIV services.
During the meeting, an experience of the “Step to Health” program to help migrants in the host country was presented as an example of building a model of interaction between the AIDS Center in the country of origin and NGOs in the host country, taking into account new opportunities for remote assistance and the start of treatment for their citizens abroad.
The AFEW Kyrgyzstan’s project focusing on working with migrants at the stage before departure for migration and in the country of destination was also presented.
Experts from the Republican Center presented their experience in remote registration and remote treatment of migrants with HIV infection — various aspects and emerging difficulties that doctors of the Center face when developing this model, as well as successful case studies.
An important topic arise during the discussion was the delivery of therapy to migrants abroad. The possibilities using the Global Fund programs for the delivery of ARVT to citizens were discussed. The participants also voiced the need to expand programs on informing citizens about the possibility of treatment while abroad, in particular involving resources of Tajikistan Ministry of Labor.
Alijon Soliev, Deputy Director of the Republican AIDS Center, made a proposal to develop and sign a Memorandum for Mutual Recognition of Medical Tests at the level of Republican AIDS Centers in the Central Asian region; this proposal was already announced at the meeting in Tashkent, held on June 3rd and was supported by the REG and Central Asia Association of PLHIV.
We highly appreciate the work of the Republican AIDS Center of the Republic of Tajikistan in helping migrants abroad and the contribution of Mr. Alijon Saliyev to the development of HIV services for migrants and cross-border cooperation in the region.