While a recent United Nations report says the number of people globally infected with HIV is stabilizing and the death toll is dropping, in Ukraine the trend is going the other way.
In 2011 there were 21,177 officially registered new HIV cases in Ukraine, 688 more than the previous year. A UN progress report on Ukraine says: “Ukraine is experiencing the most severe HIV epidemic in Eastern Europe and the CIS countries.”
The AIDS mortality rate has increased every year since 2005. Last year, 3,736 patients died of AIDS-related diseases, including 22 children, the UN report said.
“Death from AIDS related diseases has become a real threat for thousands of HIV-infected people in Ukraine,” read the UN report on Ukraine.
Current and former drug addicts compose almost a half of all HIV positive people in Ukraine, according to the Ukrainian AIDS Center. Of the 300,000 estimated injecting drug users in Ukraine, only one third are officially registered at state drug clinics. These people often acquire and transmit HIV, hepatitis C and other infectious diseases.
“One, two, three,” counts Vania as he places used syringes into a paper bag. He sits on the floor of a two-room flat in Kyiv, surrounded by other drug addicts, some of whom live, prepare and inject drugs here.
Just like an average family, they sit on a sofa, and engage in friendly chatter while sipping tea. They don’t reveal their surnames. And they look sickly tired as they speak about drugs and AIDS.
“It’s scary to go downstairs, where the children go and look at the used syringes with blood inside,” said Andriy, the drug addict owner of the flat and social volunteer. The work he does involves inviting local drug users to exchange their used needles and take regular HIV tests.
One dose of opium on the black market costs about Hr 80 ($10). But it’s too expensive for Vania, who injects mainly homemade drugs, which he buys or “cooks” himself from codeine-based headache pills.
“When I feel too bad I have to inject eye drops,” he said, referring to Tropikamid, the eyedrops sold in every drugstore for some Hr 16 ($2). With these cheap drugs he has to repeat the injection every one or two hours.
The drug users bring used syringes to social workers and receive the new ones at a drug house in Kyiv.
This kind of life for the last 15 years limits Vania’s chances for both a job and medical care. “Doctors often fear treating drug addicts,” said Sergiy Parkhomenko, a social worker at Club Eney, a non-governmental organization, who brought clean syringes and antibacterial wipes to the drug house.
Social workers often accompany drug users to hospitals to pressure the medical staff to give them treatment.
Drug users still risk HIV infection even if they use disposable syringes since the virus may remain in the drug dose if a contaminated needle was used during the drug-making process. So Vania and his friend regularly get tested for HIV at a mobile clinic. He does this every three months.
“I’m clean!” said Ira, a short-haired blond emerging from the mobile clinic established in a yellow minivan parked by the drug house. She said she started doing drugs at 18, but looks twice that age. Ira said she plans to quit, “by gradually reducing the dose.” Soon after, Vania discovered he also is HIV-negative.
Established with funds from the Global Fund, this clinic regularly comes to drug houses to conduct HIV tests and occasionally offers consultations by infectious disease doctors. Volodymyr Moiseyev of Eney Center, who manages the clinic, blames the state for turning a blind eye to drug addicts.
“State social services have money only to pay salaries for their staff,” he said. So social workers offer consultation and provide medical care to drug-users at their homes or near drugstores.
In parliament’s current version of next year’s budget, it is uncertain whether money will be earmarked for the treatment of HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis and hepatitis.
While the number of newly infected HIV people who got the deadly virus from injecting drugs is decreasing, experts say that the spread of HIV is still increasing. “When it goes from blood to blood through a syringe or contaminated drug it (HIV) spreads very fast,” said Alla Scherbynska, deputy head of Center for AIDS protection.
Andriy Klepikov, head of International HIV/AIDS Alliance in Ukraine, said that only 7.7 percent of people receiving antiretroviral therapy are drug addicts, which is hugely disproportionate to the number of people who require anti-HIV pills. “It’s a medical and human rights problem, which is provoking the number of deaths over AIDS,” he added.
Kyiv Post staff writer Oksana Grytsneko can be reached at [email protected]
