Summary
Central Asia (CA) represents the most rapidly growing HIV epidemic region worldwide, concentrated in people who inject drugs (PWID) and their sexual partners. Scaling up opioid agonist therapies (OAT) in CA is the most cost-effective strategy to prevent new HIV infections, and more effective when combined with antiretroviral therapy (ART). CA countries have especially low OAT (and ART) coverage and are uniquely impacted by their proximity to opioid trade routes, a myriad of patient, provider, healthcare and policy barriers and suboptimal implementation. CA countries share a similar rigid Semas