Ukraine crisis: 8,000 HIV-positive people at risk of no longer receiving treatment

The conflict between Ukrainians and pro-Russians could have unexpected consequences for the care of 8,000 HIV-positive people in eastern Ukraine. By mid-August, the stocks of antiretroviral drugs will be exhausted.

Palestinians, Iranians, Yemenis, the list of inhabitants whose access to medicines is restricted because of a blockade is long. This is further extended on Monday with an alert launched by the United Nations (UN) about some 8,000 HIV-positive in eastern Ukraine who risk facing a major shortage of drugs. in a month. The reason ? The economic blockade organized by Kiev on the Donbass region, and the self-proclaimed People’s Republics of Donetsk and Lugansk (pro-Russian).

Medicines already paid for

Patients “are caught in the crossfire between the Ukrainian government and pro-Russian fighters,” said Michel Kazatchkine, UN special envoy for AIDS in Eastern Europe and Central Asia, at the opening of the 8th conference on HIV pathogenesis held until Wednesday in Vancouver (western Canada). In remarks reported by Agence France Presse (AFP), he called on “the United States, Germany, France, Russia and Ukraine to act” to resolve this “urgent” problem.

In fact, while thousands of patients have fled these areas, the 8,000 who remain there are mainly drug addicts and are treated with an opioid (methadone) as a substitute for taking drugs. They are also on antiretrovirals to control their HIV infection. “By mid-August, stocks will be exhausted,” worried Michel Kazatchkine.
And the most annoying for these patients is that the drugs are already paid for. The NGO Médecins sans Frontières (MSF) has even already undertaken to send them and supervise the treatments. But for the moment, the products seem blocked at checkpoints of the Ukrainian regular army or manned by pro-Russian rebels, underlines an AFP report.

Ukraine: Europe’s worst AIDS epidemic

A very damaging situation for the populations, because until now, cooperation between the government and civil society in Ukraine had made it possible to effectively fight against the spread of HIV. Suddenly, for this UN official, all this progress “is endangered by the armed conflict, the economic crisis and the withdrawal of NGOs”.
According to the World Health Organization (WHO), Ukraine officially counted in early 2014 some 234,000 HIV-positive over the age of 15, and was facing the worst AIDS epidemic in Europe.