Government representatives, international health and migration
experts, members of the civil society and of the UN theme group on
HIV and AIDS are meeting today in Chisinau to discuss strategies to
prevent a further spread of HIV and Sexually Transmitted Infections
(STIs) among migrant communities.

The two-day event organised by IOM Chisinau will examine current
policies relating to HIV and migration, evaluate prevention
strategies and responses to HIV and migration in Moldova and
investigate HIV/STI infections among trafficked women in Ukraine
and Moldova. Participants will also discuss the role of consular
services in promoting migrants’ health rights abroad.

With mobile populations at high risk to HIV and STIs due to
limited access to information, health services, separation from
families and spouses, and given that at least 400,000 Moldovans
have emigrated, the rising levels of HIV infection and general
health conditions of migrants have become a growing cause for
concern among the authorities.

According to data provided by the Ministry of Health and Social
Protection AIDS Centre, nearly 2,900 Moldovans were officially
registered as living with HIV/AIDS by the end of 2005.  For
the first six months of 2006, 301 new cases of HIV have been
identified, compared to 236 of cases registered during the same
period of time in 2005. 

“Migration splits families and couples used to having
unprotected sex with only one partner. Quite frequently separation
leads to new relations, some of which can be risky and HIV is
transmitted as an indirect consequence of separation through
migration”, says Martin Andreas Wyss, IOM Moldova Chief of
Mission.

The participants will also be familiarized with the results of
HIV and STIs prevention activities carried out among Moldovan
communities in Italy and Russia, two main destination countries for
Moldovan migrants.

The activities were developed in the framework of the project
“HIV Prevention among Migrants in the Republic of
Moldova”, which is currently being implemented by IOM Moldova
with the financial support from the Global Fund to Fight
HIV/TB/Malaria and Soros Foundation-Moldova.  

For further information, please contact:

Iraida Margineanu

IOM Chisinau

Tel. +373 222 329 40/ext.110

E-mail:  "mailto:imargineanu@iom.int">imargineanu@iom.int