On November 25, in Petropavlovsk, employees of the North Kazakhstan Regional Center for the Prevention and Control of AIDS held an action in the hall of the City Mall shopping center. The event was part of the World AIDS Day campaign.

Everyone who wished could take an express test for HIV, which was carried out by a nurse, Altynai Zhakiyanova. Distribution of informational and educational material was organized.

Also, visitors to the shopping and entertainment center had the opportunity to receive advice on HIV issues. Specialists of the AIDS Center Tatyana Saykina and Natalya Gordymova and a representative of the PА "Phoenix" Karlygash Akinova answered all the questions of the townspeople.

"We organize such actions in crowded places periodically throughout the year. And they are popular with residents of the regional center. 34 citizens wished to do express testing. 195 visitors and employees of the mall received information and educational material and consultations. I am glad that people are interested in issues of protecting their health. They asked about ways of HIV transmission and where they could get tested. At the same time, unfortunately, there are still cases when people refuse the offer to be tested, believing that this disease can only affect certain groups of the population. We hope that such actions contribute to the awareness of the population about HIV,” – said Tatyana Saykina, head of the organizational and methodological department of the AIDS Center.