For many people from key populations, a visit to a medical facility is a choice between care for their health and fear that their personal information might become known to others. In countries where stigma and discrimination remain a reality, confidentiality becomes a crucial factor in accessing services. A person may be aware of treatment and preventive services and understand their effectiveness, but still refuse them if they aren’t confident their identity will be protected and their privacy preserved — or turn only to non-governmental organizations, where the risk of exposure is lower and trust is higher. In the countries of the Eastern Europe and Central Asia (EECA) region, where homosexuality is still stigmatized or even criminalized, a visit to an HIV clinic may, in some countries, trigger a social catastrophe: job loss, estrangement from family, public condemnation, and rejection.
Georgia is an example of a country where the anonymity of HIV services isn’t just declared, but enshrined at the state level. This made it possible to launch a pre-exposure prophylaxis program within the framework of the already existing coded registration system and to rely on a certain level of trust that had already been established in the community.
The publication was created by ECOM and published within the framework of the regional project “Sustainability of services for key populations in Eastern Europe and Central Asia (EECA) — #iSoS: Empowering and Innovations”, implemented by a consortium of organizations under management of the ICF “Alliance for Public Health”, with the financial support of the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria. Viewpoints presented herein are solely those of its authors and may not coincide with the views or opinions of the Allians for Public Health and the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis, and Malaria.
