Workers of Sverdlovsk region’s enterprises undertake voluntary HIV-testing

Workers of the Sinarsky pipe plant undertake HIV-testing

On November 20-21, mobile HIV-testing sites were opened at industrial enterprises in Kamensk-Uralsky and Nizhny Tagil, where workers could undertake voluntary and confidential HIV counselling and testing.

“At all enterprises, where we hold events to promote HIV prevention, we also organize an interactive exhibition “Remember. Know. Live!” said Anzhelika Podymova, chief doctor at the Sverdlovsk region HIV/AIDS Centre. “Visitors of this exhibition go into a 40-minute story about the HIV-infection looking into its different aspects. They have an opportunity to ask questions, to realize their own risks and to take a well-balanced decision on the need of HIV-testing.”

“The Sverdlovsk region expressed willingness to join this initiative,” said Ekaterina Ivanova, ILO Moscow Focal Point for HIV/AIDS and the World of Work for the Russian Federation. “At their workplaces adults can get and perceive basic information about the HIV-infection, think over possible risky situations and hereafter change their behavior. Every worker should realize that early disease identification allows to start treatment as early as possible and to reduce risks for everyone. Workers living with HIV should without hindrance implement their right to work.”

Today, one in twenty people in the Sverdlovsk region finds out he/she is HIV-infected. The total number of HIV-cases in the region exceeds 70,000. Recently, the HIV-infection more often affects people over 30 years of age.

Source: nashkamensk.ru