HIV/AIDS problem in Tajikistan
On the Russian-language Tajik blog Rahmon reported on HIV/AIDS problem in Tajikistan. He says that previously the organizations that were dealing with this problem did not show the true picture but to his surprise recently, when he was collecting an information for his article in one of the local journals these organization were very open and shared some interesting statistics with him.
He says that there are a lot of organizations that work in this sphere and they try to make aware the population about the dangers of HIV/AIDS but he thinks that it is not enough. There is a law which protects the rights of the infected people but they are still discriminated by the society in which they live because all the laws and edicts which exist do not work properly, the mechanisms of enforcement are weak.
According to the data provided by Open Society Institute and the official statistics provided by the Ministry of Health in September 2006, the total number of registered HIV-positives constituted 544 people, 115 of them are in places of detention. It is the official data but in reality the number of the HIV-positives much bigger, because not all of them want to show their status.
The most vulnerable part of the population are prisoners, commercial sex workers, labour migrants and drug-addicts. The last category of people are the most vulnerable because they use the single use syringes several times and share with other drug-addicts. They also infect their close relatives and friends, wives and girlfriends.
Rahmon also says that the labor migrants are considered to be in the group of high risk. They don’t even realize that they have a great risk to be infected. In one of the famous NGOs in Dushanbe which work in the sphere of HIV/AIDS, Rahmon was told a story about one labor migrant who when to Russia to earn money for his wedding. He came back from Russia as an HIV-positive and after the wedding he found out that both he and his 16 year old wife are infected. Fortunately they got some antiretroviral therapy and now they have a healthy child.
Recently I read an article about the labor migrants where I found a horrible statistics.
2% Out of 600 thousand Tajik citizens who officially went abroad as labor migrants are HIV-positive, reports the International Organization for Migration (IOM). The result of survey conducted by IOM show that 22 out of 1,000 labor migrants from Tajikistan are HIV positive.
It is only the official data and the survey considered only those who officially went abroad! As you know most of the migrants go abroad illegally.
on October 19th, 2006 at 1:48 pm
The HIV/AIDS cause can be summed up in one word
“Men”
Men in most countries hold all the cards
They have positions of leadership, they hold all the economic power, they frequently hold the sexual power in a marriage. If they have a wife (or even if they do not), there is absolutely no reason to visit a prostitute. Women are treated like crap by men.
The solution is simple.
Any man infecting his wife should be tortured, beaten to death, burned alive, publically shamed.
Any man visiting a prostitute, the same should happen to him.
His behaviour is inexcusable.
on October 19th, 2006 at 9:05 pm
EXCELLENT! , please talk about the problem more – people need to be more informed, its so important. Infection prevention is not working at the health facilities level – it will be disaster in the coming 5 -10 years time in Tajikistan, Only solution is condom promotion, health education starting from school level, infection prevention control at health facilities level and we really need proper VCCTs, ARVs are there but they would be too expensive for all the risk/vulnerable group. Thanks for the concerns. God bless.
on June 3rd, 2007 at 7:11 am
I would like to know what is the number if AIDS in Tajik citizen officially?
on June 3rd, 2007 at 7:15 am
Every one are willing to make mistake ,as someone mentioned the one who infected with AIDS should be burned ,he is absolutely not right,this is mistake you could also be instead of them ,so do not discriminate them,please/ THINK GLOBALY ACT LOCALLY!!!
on June 3rd, 2007 at 7:16 am
Every one are willing to make mistake ,as someone mentioned the one who infected with AIDS should be burned ,he is absolutely not right,this is mistake you could also be instead of them ,so do not discriminate them,please/ THINK GLOBALY ACT LOCALLY!!! Next time will be more careful
on September 6th, 2007 at 9:17 am
AIDS Prevention Spotlighted by Gender Mainstreaming
Anirudha Alam
Spread of HIV/AIDS results in risk of losing forms of social and economic protection. There is no doubt that onslaught of HIV/AIDS is closely associated with gender inequality and poor respect for the rights of women. So to mitigate the multiple impacts of epidemic, gender mainstreaming should be significantly integrated into HIV/AIDS prevention programs. Eventually, HIV prevention and impact mitigation policy will be able to make the realization of gender equality one of the most important strategies.
Gender mainstreaming for HIV/AIDS is to ensure gender equality in all policies, programs and activities that it would be possible to keep the epidemic in bay. It is the most efficient and equitable means for using existing resources with a view to combating HIV/AIDS internalizing need based approach. At a rough estimate since the beginning of the epidemic, over 10 million women have died from HIV/AIDS-resulted illness. 48 per cent of adults newly affected by HIV/AIDS in 2001 were certainly women. The fact that lack of gender mainstreaming along with domination of social stigma and discrimination creates a tremendous barrier to women making them unable to adopt HIV risk-reducing behavior.
Social stigma and gender discrimination engulf series of possibilities to reduce vulnerability to HIV/AIDS successively. The enhanced poverty and developmental decline nourished by gender inequality may make women and girls engaged in risky sexual behavior in lieu of getting money, food and other facilities. Having lack of enough access to quality treatment and care, then they fall into enormous vulnerability to sexually transmitted diseases (STIs) one after another.
As per the finding of Rainbow Nari O Shishu Kallyan Foundation, 95 per cent adolescent girls of Bangladesh are drastically vulnerable to HIV/AIDS because of their paltry access to necessary information for protecting their reproductive health. Due to their poverty at the levels of awareness, skill, knowledge, attitude and practice all along, they are being more vulnerable consecutively. When they are enough adult they are not able to ensure their role as potential manpower in planning, implementing, monitoring and evaluating pro-gender programs and projects.
Considering all the situations related to sexual behavior, social attitudes and praxis, financial empowerment and so on, there are in-depth differences between men’s and women’s access to information, prevention, treatment and care-giving supports. It is much more common in all cultures that commitments for guiding sexual behavior and sexual health are being threatened by gender discrimination. If women and girls have not qualitative reproductive health literacy HIV/AIDS will be turned into as the greatest social problem in developing countries. According to the findings of UNAIDS, as of December 2000, ninety five per cent of all AIDS cases have occurred in developing countries.
Through promoting, facilitating and supporting the implementation of gender mainstreaming, AIDS prevention should be brought about under the spotlight of women empowerment. Gender mainstreaming and women empowerment are obviously complementary strategies. So the strategy of gender mainstreaming within HIV/AIDS prevention should be outlined that women empowerment is ensured.
Ref: UNAIDS, World Bank, Commonwealth Secretariat, UNESCO
Anirudha Alam
Deputy Director
(Information & Development Communication)
BEES (Bangladesh Extension Education Services)
183, Lane 2, Eastern Road, New DOHS
Mohakhali, Dhaka 1206
Bangladesh.
Phone: 8801718342876, 88028050514 (res.)
E-mail: anirudha.alam@gmail.com
Website: http://anirudha-alam.blogspot.com