The registered number of women infected with HIV in Serbia is lower than the number of HIV positive men. However, the UNPFA Report on Serbia and the Ministry of Health recommend increasing accessibility to gender sensitive programs for HIV prevention by government and non-government service providers (UNPFA 2007: 1, Ministry of Health RS 2008: 41).
With this in mind, the main objective of the project was to provide recommendations for gender sensitive services provided by government and non-government actors to persons infected by and at risk from HIV, which should be incorporated into the Action Plan for the implementation of the National Strategy for the Fight against HIV/AIDS. As part of this project, in-depth interviews were conducted with 99 respondents, female sexual partners of IDU, and results provide insight into many characteristics, factors and consequences of living with drugs, as well as gender specific features of health and social risks.
Two types of recommendations were formulated, based on these findings, which pertain to prevention of health and social risks, and support for persons infected by and at risk from HIV. Recommendations are to be used by relevant government institutions and the civil sector to improve and adapt services to suit the needs of women in the context of HIV.
Handouts were published for this project: “Which Services are Available to Me as an Injection Drug User (IDU)?“ and “Profile and problems of Female Partners of Injection Drug Users (IDU)“.