Moldova needs a Strategy on preventing HIV/AIDS in light of continuous migration

Moldova needs a Strategy on preventing HIV/AIDS in light of the migration which is increasing continuously. This recommendation was made by the participants to the roundtable “Epidemiological Risks of Mobility: HIV/AIDS Prevention for Migrants in Moldova”, which was organized during 2 days by the International Organization for Migration (IOM). The event gathered representatives of the governmental institutions and international experts in HIV and migration, of UN agencies, as well as the representatives of the civil society who are engrossed in dealing with HIV. The participants discussed the problems related to HIV and migration, Sexually Transmitted Infections (STI), health and social protection of migrants. Additionally, the roundtable aimed at raising the level of public awareness as regards the spread of HIV among migrants and the mobile population of Moldova. The participants in the roundtable drafted a declaration by means of which they confirm that the relatively low rate of HIV prevalence in Moldova offers the opportunity to maintain it at the present rate. The effort of the Government and of the civil society as concerns counteracting HIV is to be supported and implemented, recommending to the Government and other involved parties to create a Strategy on preventing HIV in an integrated formula, which would view migrants not as a separate category but as a part of the whole population. Martin Andreas Wyss, head of IOM Mission to Moldova, declared that migration separates families and couples which are used to unprotected sexual relations with a single partner. Frequently, the separation leads to new relationships, which could be risky, therefore the spread of this infection is an indirect consequence of the separation through migration, IOM official added. According to data of the AIDS Center within the Ministry of Health and Social Protection, 533 new cases of HIV were registered in 2005, which constitutes 12.5 persons per 100 000 inhabitants. In the first semester of 2006 were identified 301 new cases compared with the first six months of 2005, when 236 new cases were found out.