Proactive work in COVID-19 counteraction

The Tashkent AIDS Center responded promptly to the quarantine situation. Also, many thanks to the doctors. They work on weekends, are on duty at AIDS centers, always answer the phone, provide consultations. Doctors understand that a person with HIV cannot once again come and get a consultation in person.
Eugenia Korotkova Coordinator of the program ‘Women and children+’, NGO ‘Ishonch va Khaet’

Task 

Uzbekistan is taking a rigorous approach to tackling the coronavirus pandemic. The closure of cities, the ban on travelling in cars and public transport, rigid self-isolation. Such measures could endanger those who need ongoing support, such as people on ART. You can’t buy it in pharmacies of Uzbekistan. The main task was: how not to lose the lives of people with HIV, saving them from COVID-19?

Solution 

As soon as it became known that COVID-19 came to the country, all AIDS centers began to provide ART medication for two months. After the introduction of car stickers, the Ishonch va Khaet organization compiled lists of people who applied to the organization for the need for ARV therapy, for any reason. For example, a person is stuck in another city, registration does not correspond to the place of residence, there is no way and means to get to the center or clinic.

The program ‘Positive motherhood’ was implemented with the support of AFEW for pregnant women and women in labor living with HIV. Peer counselors provided social support delivering ART, infant formula, providing escort to health facilities and PCR testing for infant diagnosis.

On the part of the AIDS service, measures were also taken to decentralize ART to the bases of district clinics in the offices of infectious diseases.

And already in these clinics, patients received medications in infectious disease offices.

The Republican Commission included people living with HIV in the list of cases for which a special permit for driving vehicles was not required. The centers began issuing certificates, which then had to be shown at the checkpoint and explained that a person was traveling to Tashkent for vital medicines.

Result

With the help of operational collaboration between the Ishonch va Khaet NGO and the Tashkent AIDS center, it was possible to provide PLHIV with ART, infant formula, provide access to secondary medical care, and also minimize the risk of their infection with COVID-19 without violating the quarantine regime.