Expansion of outreach through government AIDS centers is needed to prevent the spread of HIV in Russia

Abstract

Expansion of outreach through government AIDS centers is needed to prevent the spread of HIV in Russia. Orel, Russia, is the site of a pilot project in HIV community outreach conducted by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Russian Ministry of Health. We sought to determine whether outreach, a documented method for reaching injection drug users and their female sex partners for HIV prevention, is feasible through a Russian Government AIDS Center. We used a rapid assessment cross-sectional-survey. We demonstrated that at-risk persons who are not currently in contact with the public health system can be reached through community outreach by a government AIDS Center with limited resources and political constraints. Community-recruited persons, compared with institutionally recruited persons, had more risk behaviors and less HIV knowledge, suggesting that they are not being reached by current prevention efforts. We recommend that other AIDS centers in Russia consider piloting similar outreach projects in partnership with non-government organizations and the federal government.