Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, and Tajikistan (2013-2014): TRaC evaluating risk behaviors associated with HIV transmission and utilization of HIV prevention services among sex workers in Almaty city, Chui Oblast, and Dushanbe city. Endline Survey.

Risky behaviors continue to sustain serious AIDS epidemics in Central Asia. At the heart of many of Central Asia's epidemics lies the intersection of injecting drug use, due to the location of the region on the drug trafficking rout from Afghanistan to Eastern Europe and Russia, and unprotected, often commercial sex. The number of sex workers in Central Asian countries has risen dramatically in recent history, and levels of sexually transmitted infections are high, raising concerns that HIV could become more common among sex workers in coming years. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to provide end line assessment of risk behaviors associated with HIV transmission and utilization of HIV prevention services among sex workers, as well as assessment of exposure to HIV and TB prevention programs, in Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, and Tajikistan. The study design calls for conventional multistage cluster approach, time and location sampling (TLS), as sex workers are a hard-to-reach population and therefore difficult to reach through household sampling. The duration of data collection is 4 weeks, between August and September 2013, and data collection takes place in Almaty city, Chui Oblast, and Dushanbe city. Analysis of data is conducted using SPSS/STATA, and findings will be shared with partner organizations across the three project countries.