Family doctors and nurses of Belgorod-Dnestrovsk were taught how to perform HIV rapid-testing.

March 1-3, 2017. The three-days training “Councelling and rapid-testing for HIV” for the family doctors and nurses took place in Odessa region, Belgorod-Dnestrovsk city. The trainings are a part of the program “Sustainability of HIV services” and are aimed to increase the availability of the HIV prevention services on le primal level of help. This line of work happens to be the most needed for the people living with HIV and not knowing it. Knowing the status is the first step towards changing lifestyle and habits.

The training was lead by the experienced trainers Valentina Lukyanenko and Oxana Tereschenko. The training started from the leading skin and STD doctor of the city Leonid Kondratyuk.  In his speech, he pointed the importance of the HIV-training for the family doctors, since they will be the door for the clients from risk groups to come to receive the prevention services in the city. “It is very important not only to test his status, but also to give him the right information in the right way. In case of the positive status, it is important to forward the person to the further therapy specialists”.
In the three days of the training, the participants were introduced to the recent HIV epidemical situation in the world and in Ukraine, the legislative base for the topic, the necessary skills on the pre- and post-testing communication with the client, as well as the technique of rapid-testing itself.
Similar learning processes took place in frames of the “HIV-services reform” project in the seven territories of the country (Kiev, Odessa, Poltava, Kanev, Krivoi Rog, Pervomaisk and Kherson). During the next 6 months, about 700 family doctors and nurses will participate in the trainings for the HIV counseling and testing.