Stigma and discrimination among health-care workers is among the most severe barriers that people living with HIV experience in accessing life-saving health services. In order to encourage a new generation of health-care workers in the Russian Federation to provide medical services in a non-stigmatizing and discrimination-free setting, 20 medical students from across the country are participating in a new week-long course at the Vera HIV Medical School.
“Medical students often only hear second-hand stories about how to treat or care for people living with HIV. But if they receive the right training and practical support, they can be a bridge between people at risk of HIV and access to life-saving services,” said Anton Yeremin, the course’s coordinator, who is also an infectious diseases doctor who specializes in HIV treatment and care. “If doctors unknowingly promote stigma or explicitly discriminate against people living with HIV, or people at risk of HIV, it can result in patients being denied access to treatment, or even avoiding contact with medical services," he added.
The course is designed to complement what students learn at university. “We encourage future doctors to develop skills specific to the HIV context, such as relating to patients and understanding some of the social and legal aspects of their diagnosis,” said Mr Yeremin. The course consists of lectures and workshops on non-discriminatory approaches to people living with HIV and meeting people living with HIV, doctors, lawyers, psychologists, HIV activists and representatives of nongovernmental organizations to hear their stories.
According to Dmitry Petrov, a peer counsellor at the Svetlana Izambayeva Charitable Foundation, his clients are often denied admission to hospital. “An ambulance will arrive and the ambulance crew will say we can drive him to a hospital, but they won't admit him,” he said. Not long ago, he was helping a client to be admitted to a hospital; two official referrals from the local AIDS centre made no difference, and the woman was denied admission. Only after formal complaints filed by the patient’s family to the local government did the client get admitted. When asked about the most recent time a client was refused hospital admission, Mr Petrov answered “Yesterday,” without hesitation.
The stories shared by the Svetlana Izambayeva Charitable Foundation’s staff are consistent with the findings published in a recent Human Rights Watch report, which notes that people living with HIV regularly face stigma and discrimination from health-care workers. The situation is said to be worse outside of the major cities.
The course was initiated and organized by the National Union of Medical Students and was featured on a crowdfunding platform called No One Left Behind, a joint project of the Russian AIDS Center Foundation and UNAIDS.
Vera Brezhnevа, UNAIDS Goodwill Ambassador for Eastern Europe and Central Asia, has sponsored the course. “Every doctor must expect to see a person living with HIV at some point. We want medical students to understand that people living with HIV are a large and diverse group of people and their diagnosis is not a reason to hold negative attitudes towards them,” said Ms Brezhnevа. "I hope these first graduates of the Vera HIV Medical School will be the beginning of the end of HIV-related discrimination in health-care settings,” she added.
