SCALING UP HIV SELF-TESTING AND LINKAGE TO CARE AMONG WOMEN WHO EXCHANGE SEX AND/OR USE DRUGS IN KAZAKHSTAN

West B.S. Darisheva M. McCrimmon T. Zholnerova N. Grigorchuk E. Starbird L. Terlikbayeva A. Primbetova S. Baiserkin B. Mussina Z. Kasymbekova S. Cordingley O. Frye V.A.
Jun 2024 Guilford Publications

AIDS Education and Prevention
2024 #36 Issue 3 216 - 228 pp.

HIV testing is the point of entry for linkage to treatment and prevention and is critically important to ending the HIV epidemic. HIV self-testing (HST) is an acceptable, user-controlled tool that can address testing barriers, which is especially important for populations who need to test frequently, like women who exchange or trade sex for money or other needed resources (WES) and women who use drugs. HST is feasible and acceptable among WES, but research among WES who also use drugs is limited, particularly in places like Kazakhstan, where HIV rates remain high and where scale-up of HST and pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) is in process. To develop effective programming, there is a need to develop tailored services for WES and/or use drugs that address key barriers. We discuss opportunities to increase HST and linkage to services among WES and/or use drugs in Kazakhstan, with a focus on stigma reduction.

Central Asia , drug use , HIV self-testing , Kazakhstan , pre-exposure prophylaxis , sex work , stigma

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School of Social Work, Columbia University, New York, NY, United States
Global Health Research Center for Central Asia, Almaty, Kazakhstan
Sociomedical Sciences, Columbia University, New York, NY, United States
Amelia NGO, Taldykorgan, Kazakhstan
NGO, Almaty, Kazakhstan
School of Nursing, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA, United States
Kazakh Scientific Center of Dermatology and Infectious Diseases, Almaty, Kazakhstan

School of Social Work
Global Health Research Center for Central Asia
Sociomedical Sciences
Amelia NGO
NGO
School of Nursing
Kazakh Scientific Center of Dermatology and Infectious Diseases

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