8,000 HIV sufferers face medicine shortage in Ukraine

Nearly 8,000 HIV patients in eastern Ukraine are struggling with a serious lack of medicine as their medical supplies are estimated to run out within a month, a UN envoy warns. The patients are “caught in the political crossfire” between the Ukrainian army and pro-Russia forces, because their required drugs are blocked at border checkpoints, UN Secretary General’s special envoy for AIDS in Eastern Europe and Central Asia Michel Kazatchkine said on Sunday. The Donbass region, comprised of Luhansk and Donetsk regions, in Ukraine’s east once housed 25 percent of the country’s HIV-positive population, but many of them have already fled due to the ongoing crisis, said Kazatchkine.

Most of the 8,000 who have remained need both antiretroviral treatments and opioids to keep their HIV infections under control. The drugs have already been purchased and the medical charity group Doctors Without Borders has vowed to deliver them and supervise treatment, Kazatchkine said. However, Kiev does not allow the drugs to be transported to eastern Ukraine, arguing that the medical supplies require armed convoys to be transported, he said. 

The UN envoy urged key nations involved in the Ukrainian crisis to intervene over the issue as soon as possible. “I am calling on the United States, Germany, France, Ukraine and Russia to do something” to help the patients, Kazatchkine said. Donbass has seen deadly clashes between pro-Russia forces and the Ukrainian army since Kiev launched military operations in April 2014 to silence the pro-Russians there. The crisis in Ukraine has left 6,500 people dead and 16,000 more wounded, according to the UN.