Belarus

Advocacy, dialogue, and policy analysis enabled Belarus to make significant progress in 2022 in reducing stigma and discrimination against people living with or affected with HIV and key populations. In particular, the review process of articles 157 and 158 of the Criminal Code was facilitated in collaboration with the Ministry of Health and the Legal Environment Assessment (LEA) working group towards decriminalization of HIV transmission (UNDP, UNODC, WHO). In addition, thanks to a series of dialogues with civil society actors and communities, the needs of people living with HIV and people who use drugs are clearer and new evidence supports programming (UNDP, UNODC, WHO); HIV prevention and treatment services tailored for adolescents improved through the mobilization of professionals and related new guidance (UNICEF); and HIV prevention initiatives further empowered young people to protect their health and make safe choices. For instance, the Dance4Life peer education project reached more than 1200 young people (UNFPA). To scale up HIV prevention among key populations, healthcare workers and law enforcement officers have stronger capacities on harm reduction and opioid agonist therapy services (UNODC).

People living with HIV benefit from improved clinical management of HIV thanks to the development of a new national HIV treatment guideline, which introduced high-quality treatment regimens, access to pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) and post-exposure prophylaxis (PEP), and implementation of rapid HIV diagnostic testing algorithms (WHO). The first PrEP programme targeting men who have sex with men was rolled out in Minsk in 2022, with 138 people receiving PrEP. The health system's ability to provide comprehensive care and treatment to individuals living with HIV and affected by tuberculosis significantly improved after a comprehensive approach was promoted through the training of Ministry of Health’s employees (WHO).