Ukraine has received very important grants to fight HIV epidemic, but this fight is not effective and the epidemic continues to grow steadily, while HIV prevalence is receding in many countries of the world. On April 30th 2012, Ban-Ki Moon urged groups to take measures to “achieve immediate, tangible results” in the fight against the epidemics.
A way to reverse the trend and get such results in Ukraine would be to put the stake on treatment; AIDS Healthcare Foundation wrote an open letter to the head of the Global Fund asking him to take action.
LOS ANGELES (May 9, 2012)—AIDS Healthcare Foundation (AHF), the largest global AIDS organization which currently provides medical care and services to more than 166,000 individuals in 26 countries worldwide, including more than 5,000 in Ukraine in partnership with governmental clinics, has addressed an open letter to Gabriel Jaramillo, general manager of the Global Fund to fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, to ask for urgent reorientation of its grants in Ukraine.
This country, which concentrates with Russia 90% of the HIV positives of the region, has been granted over 300 million dollars (USD) to fight the epidemics. This is ten times more than Myanmar, which has as many patients receiving life-saving anti-retroviral drugs. However, with the Global Fund’s money, only 4,600 people living with HIV are receiving anti-retroviral drugs in Ukraine, while UNAIDS estimate that more than a hundred thousand are still in need. It is evidence-based that treatment is prevention; therefore, such reorientation should put an end to this mortal trend.
AHF therefore asks for the re-programing of 75% of the already approved resources toward treatment and hopes that the value of money, one of the core values of the Global Fund, will help to trigger the long waited reverse of the epidemics in Ukraine.
