A bleak future for Romania's HIV population

Romania is beginning to experience a problem that was thought to have been eradicated in Europe. For decades, people who are HIV positive have been travelling from across the country to the capital city of Bucharest to obtain anti-retroviral drugs. However, recent reports coming out of the country are claiming the country has almost reached the last of its supplies of these crucial drugs and has little provisions or plans to acquire more. These drugs which have essentially been keeping the countries HIV positive population alive are soon to be abandoned along with the countries government supported needle exchange programs which have been particularly important in supplying thousands of the countries drug users.

The reasons for the abandonment of AIDS/HIV medicines and preventative methods are not yet clear. Understandably, they have been suffering from the same economic crisis that has rocked the whole of Europe. They have unsustainable debts, serious budget deficits, striking nurses and rampant corruption which has meant the Ministry of Health is in a state of utter disintegration. Nevertheless, these problems have occurred in all European countries and should not be the reason for Romania’s health service to stop providing anti-retroviral drugs. However, other EU member states like Bulgaria have prioritised the treatment of HIV while Romania has not and they failed to adopt Germanys “affordable medicine initiative” which would have led to cut price supply of anti-retroviral drugs. Indeed one could argue that depriving these people of these drugs that keeps them alive is in fact a clear breach article 3 of the European convention of human rights.

It should also be noted that generally, Romania has been successful in maintaining provisions for its HIV positive population. Romania’s HIV provisions and needle exchange programs run by a group of NGO’s has been remarkably cost effective costing just $2 a month to provide for some 7300 users comprised mainly of sex-workers, street children and vulnerable Roma. However, these groups cannot fill the void created by an end of government sponsored provisions.

The stopping of these treatments would be disastrous, particularly for the large numbers of children who were infected following the 1989 revolution, when they were infected through batches of contaminated blood that was being used since 1986.  One of the key problems facing these people who have been previously using anti-retroviral drugs to essentially stay alive is that the stopping of provisions will lead to their virus evolving into a drug resistant strain, which will make using the drugs at a later stage useless and ineffective. 

However, making Romanians understand the importance of these provisions is not easy matter. Part of the problem facing those campaigning for maintaining drug provisions are the negativity facing HIV positive people in Romania. For example, a recent survey shows that 20% of women and 30% of men claim that they would deny a HIV-positive student school attendance, with the levels even higher in rural areas. Tackling the stigma and negative connotations around HIV and AIDS in Romania will be key in helping to put pressure on the government to maintain their anti-retroviral drug services, however, time is a premium as the drugs have almost completely run out. The future looks bleak for Romania’s HIV positive population.