Police education as a component of national HIV response: Lessons from Kyrgyzstan

Situated along the ancient Silk Road linking Europe to Asia, Kyrgyzstan has become an increasingly important transportation corridor for Afghani opium and itinerant labor. This has fueled epidemics of bloodborne and sexually-transmitted infections (STIs) among people who inject drugs (PWID), sex workers, and migrants.

The prevalence of HIV reaches 50 times and 5 times the background rate among PWID and sex workers, respectively; three-quarters of Kyrgyz HIV cases can be directly or indirectly attributed to injection drug use (World Health Organization, 2009).

Kyrgyzstan's experience suggest that police trainings have the potential to improve the integration of policing and public health efforts targeting at-risk groups.

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