:: Russia - THE HIV EPIDEMIC AMONG STREET YOUTH: Rights Based Approaches and Replicable Solutions From Russia

THE HIV EPIDEMIC AMONG STREET YOUTH:
Rights Based Approaches and Replicable Solutions From Russia

Tuesday, December 1st World AIDS Day
12:30 2:00 pm
Carnegie Endowment for International Peace
1779 Massachusetts Avenue, NW Washington, DC

Street youth around the globe remain one of the populations most at-risk for HIV infection. Routine human rights abuses, such as denial of health care and social services, as well as high- risk behaviors often associated with life on the street, have in some regions lead to epidemic rates of HIV infection.

Russia has one of the fastest growing HIV-epidemics in the world. A 2007 CDC-funded study by HealthRight International found that 37% of street youth in St. Petersburg were HIV-positive. The Russian government and the international funding community have been slow to realize an effective response to stem the spread of HIV in Russia, particularly neglecting to fulfill the needs of populations who have traditionally faced barriers in accessing health services.

HIV prevention programs targeting youth often focus on those within mainstream institutions, such as schools and community groups. Yet populations on the margins of society, such as street youth, are often the ones most at-risk for HIV infection. Because of their age, street youth are seldom allowed to access HIV services for “typical” high-risk groups such as prisoners, sex workers, or injection drug users. Adding to this, they are an easy target for abuse from law enforcement, which drives them further underground, away from life-saving services.

HealthRight combines a human rights approach with sustainable interventions to both stem the tide of HIV-infection among street youth, and to ensure those living with HIV have access to treatment and care.

ROMAN YORICK, MD, MPH
Regional Director for Russia and NIS, HealthRight International

MONICA S. RUIZ, PhD, MPH
Assistant Research Professor, Department of Prevention and Community Health, George Washington University School of Public Health and Health Services;
Director, HIV Prevention Research Program at the Forum for Collaborative HIV Research

Roman Yorick received his medical degree from the Russian State Medical University in Moscow and a Master of Public Health at the University of California at Berkeley with an emphasis on health policy and management. He worked with the American International Health Alliance in Russia coordinating American-Russian primary healthcare partnership program at eight sites across the Russian Federation. Since 2003 Dr. Yorick has lead HealthRight's representative office in Russia and the St. Petersburg-based NGO Doctors to Children, a key partner in HealthRight’s programs.

Dr. Ruiz is a behavioral scientist whose career has focused almost exclusively on HIV prevention research. Her current interests include addressing behavioral and policy issues pertaining to the development and implementation of non-vaccine HIV prevention strategies and examining the social and structural factors that impede HIV prevention efforts in vulnerable and disenfranchised populations.

Please RSVP today by emailing Daniel Kricheff at daniel.kricheff@healthright.org.

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