HIV epidemic in Eastern Europe and Central Asia

Despite the global progress that has been made in the fight against HIV/AIDS, some regions are still failing in tackling the spread of infections. Much of Eastern Europe and Central Asia continues to see a rapid increase in the number of HIV infections among men, women and children with an increase of 66% to 1.5 million people since 2001 according to the latest figures from a UNICEF report. 

In Russia, the situation is especially worrying. With 1.8 miliion injecting drug users (80% of them being under 30) and very little provisions to cater for their health needs, the epidemic is only likely to get worse. One of the main problems in Russia is that young people with HIV find themselves separated from society, claims Bertrand Bainvel, UNICEF's representative for Russia. "HIV-positive children are often denied access to schools and kindergartens, while they need more support," he said in an interview Tuesday. "We need to change the environment to improve the situation." Access to antiretroviral treatment is also among the lowest in the world, with widespread stigma and discrimination still rampant, violating the basic rights and dignity of people living with and affected by HIV, further hampering any progress in prevention, care and support.

The report also claims that 6 percent to 10 percent of children born to HIV-positive mothers are abandoned in maternity wards. The UNICEF report also highlighted how the disease itself was not the main reason for the abandonment of young people infected with HIV. In most cases, the reason for the abandonment of children can be attributed to “unwanted pregnancy, poverty, lack of family support, drug and alcohol use, fear of infants having birth defects or disabilities, and an inability to support the costs of care.” Equally worrying is the fact that in five regions in Russia, the number of people infected with HIV since 2006 has skyrocketed to a shocking 700%. Meanwhile, Russia’s head doctor Gennady Onishchenko has repeatedly rebuked calls for methadone treatment and other opiate substitution therapies, proclaiming Russia will never adopt “foreign ideas”!

As worrying as this statement and these statistics are, the response from the world media has been equally troubling. With no major news networks covering with the story, putting pressure on the governments of these countries to step up their treatments and support for young people affected by HIV infections is made much more difficult. To make matters worse, the UN has appointed the former Russian ambassador to the UK Yuri Fedotov as the replacement of Antonio Maria Costa as head of the UN Office on Drugs and Crime. The failure of the Russian government to address the HIV epidemic in its own country is clearly a public policy disaster. It could be potentially devastating if the same policy makers had any more influence on global drug policy.