Your health – Your rights – Your responsibility!

A national campaign for World AIDS Day is being launched in Kyrgyzstan.

For 40 years, HIV has remained a serious threat to public health systems in all countries of the world, including Kyrgyzstan.For 40 years, HIV has remained a serious threat to public health systems in all countries of the world, including Kyrgyzstan.For 40 years, HIV has remained a serious threat to public health systems in all countries of the world, including Kyrgyzstan.

On World AIDS Day 2021, the AIDS service in the Kyrgyz Republic states that 45% of new HIV infections in the country are detected in the late stages of AIDS, when doctors are powerless to do anything.

"For two years now we have been living in the era of the coronavirus pandemic, which has seriously changed our lives and continues to change it. Unfortunately, in the last two years we have seen an unhealthy trend, when most people turn to the AIDS service already at the late stages of infection development," says Umutkan Chokmorova, Director of the AIDS RC.

The national campaign for World AIDS Day will take place during November 2021. Citizens will be able to take rapid saliva tests for themselves and their sexual partner free of charge and anonymously in all structural divisions of the AIDS service and conduct independent testing, as well as pass anonymous testing in the markets in large hypermarkets and participate in promotions and campaigns to be organized by partners of the AIDS service.

Kyrgyzstan is already developing the sixth State program to overcome HIV for 2022-2026. The country voted for a new Political Declaration on AIDS adopted at the United Nations High-level Meeting in 2021. The commitments made to eradicate AIDS by 2030 show the high commitment and interest of the country's leadership in solving the problems of HIV and AIDS.

"This year we are talking not only about health, but also about the rights and responsibility of people for their health. We all know that everyone has the right to health, and how to use this right depends on ourselves. We want everyone to take care and responsibility for their health. Today, HIV infection is not a verdict. There is a modern and effective treatment in the country. However, in order to find out your HIV status in a timely manner, you need to be tested. Rapid HIV testing by saliva is widely available at the level of any medical institutions. If you want to know your HIV status, you just need to take this test," explains Aibek Bekbolotov, Deputy director of the RC "AIDS".

As of October 01, 2021, 10,328 HIV cases were officially registered in the country. The main route of transmission of infection is the sexual route, which accounts for 51.9% of all detected cases. For 9 months of 2021, more than 400 thousand people were tested for HIV in Kyrgyzstan. 598 people with HIV were identified and the sexual route of transmission was 81.3%.