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Introduction: The region of Eastern Europe and Сentral Asia has a growing HIV epidemic. Kazakhstan is a country in Central Asia with an estimated 33,000 people living with HIV. The new HIV infections have increased by 29% since 2010. Evidence suggests that HIV testing strategies focused on social networks are effective methods to identify more people with undiagnosed HIV. We conducted a study to describe the optimized HIV case finding (OCF) intervention for people who inject drugs (PWID) and their partners in Kazakhstan. Methodology: The OCF is based on recruitment of the extended risk social networks of HIV-positive PWID, using a two-step recruitment algorithm. Results: There were 5,983 PWIDs and their partners tested for HIV, of those 149 (2.5%) received HIV-positive test results and the majority 145 (97%) were newly identified HIV-positive. The characteristics which had a statistically significant positive association with HIV-positive test results included: age group 15-19 (OR 4.12, 95% CI 1.44-11.7); age group 20-24 (OR 1.97, 95% CI 1.03-3.8); age group 50+ (OR 2.45, 95% CI 1.48-4.1); male sex (OR 1.78; 95% CI 1.2-2.6), participants who have previously received harm reduction services (OR 1.48; 95% CI 1.0-2.2); partners from “other groups” (OR 2.31, 95% CI 1.3-4.2). Conclusions: Low-threshold HIV testing and harm reduction services, like OCF using directly assisted self-testing and social network strategies are essential in reaching key populations with HIV prevention, increasing access to HIV testing and care.

Introduction: HIV/TB comorbidity is responsible for 1.6 million deaths worldwide. HIV/TB control and patients’ survival are still among priorities of the national HIV and TB programs. We aimed to evaluate the HIV/TB survival in connection with TB treatment outcomes and factors influencing life duration of the cohort 2008-2018 in Almaty, Kazakhstan. Methodology: This retrospective cohort study extracted data for all HIV and pulmonary TB adults coinfected during 2008-2018 in Almaty from national registries to apply descriptive, Kaplan-Meier estimation, and Cox proportional hazards regression model. Survival function for the TB treatment outcomes and factors predicting the probability of survival were tested and described. Results: The cohort population (n = 521) mean age was 37.4 years with 405 (77.7%) males and 210 (40.3%) marrieds. More than one TB treatment had 181 (34.7%) patients, 291 (55.9%) were smear-positive (SS+), and 423 (81.2%) were on antiretroviral therapy with mean CD4 count 254.22cells/µL. Probability to live longer was higher (128 versus 37 months, p = 0.003; 95% confidence interval (CI) 71.65, 184.35) for those who succeeded in TB treatment compared to “lost to follow-up” and “failed” treatment outcomes. Adjusted Cox regression model death hazard showed association with missing ART treatment (HR: 1.699, 95%CI 1.164, 2.481, p = 0.006) and having CD4 count < 499 (HR 2.398, 95%CI 1.191, 4.830, p < 0.014). Conclusion: TB treatment outcomes, ART treatment, and the CD4 count of HIV/TB coinfected population substantially influence their life duration. The medical decision- and policy-makers should take this into consideration when implementing targeted improvements in the national HIV and TB programs.

Introduction: Antiretroviral therapy (ART) is an effective preventive strategy against tuberculosis (TB) in people living with HIV (PLWH). In Kazakhstan, according to the revised HIV treatment guideline (2017), ART should be initiated immediately after HIV diagnosis established, regardless of CD4+ count. Aim: To evaluate the impact of early initiation of ART on TB infection in PLWH registered in the Center of Prevention and Control of AIDS, Almaty, Kazakhstan, between 2008 and 2018. Methodology: A retrospective cohort study was conducted using the data of 4,053 patients from electronic HIV case management system (2008-2018) (EHCMS). Results: The study revealed low rates (12.6%) of rapid ART (≤ 1 month after HIV diagnosis). Patients in the rapid ART initiation group were less likely to develop TB compared with those who started treatment >1 month after the HIV detection (odds ratio 1.6; 95% confidence interval [1.1, 2.2]; p = 0.00799). Interestingly, the risk for developing TB among patients receiving ART ≥ 1 month after HIV diagnosis was significantly higher compared with those not taking any treatment. The latter was explained by several confounding not addressed during the analysis, since ART was prescribed to patients with primarily deeper immunodeficiency, while the patients not receiving ART were less immunocompromised. Conclusion: Despite the recently changed HIV treatment guideline in Kazakhstan, ART is still initiated based on the disease severity. In 2018, the initiation of ART during the first month after HIV diagnosis increased by 50%. However, it is necessary to reduce the time to initiation of ART for all patients.