Lives at risk as HIV services for drug users collapse in E.Ukraine

People who inject drugs will be cut off from life saving treatment after drug programmes are finally closed in areas of the country affected by the war in eastern Ukraine.

The Alliance for Public Health (APH) has announced that the last 64 patients in the occupied area of Donetsk who receive Opioid Substitution Therapy (OST), will be cut off from treatment within days.

It comes as civil society organisations gather in Vienna at the Commission on Narcotic Drugs (CND) ahead of the first UN General Assembly Session on drugs (UNGASS) for nearly 20 years.

Since the outbreak of war in 2014 APH has struggled to maintain harm reduction services to people who inject drugs, particularly in areas of the country annexed by Russia, such as Crimea and conflict areas in eastern Ukraine under the control of separatist forces.

Overall around 50,000 people receive HIV prevention services in occupied areas of Ukraine. But since the start of the conflict in 2014, more than 900 patients have lost access OST in the war zone area. The last remaining 64 patients still receiving treatment in Donetsk will run out of supplies (methadone) by the end of March.

When people have their methadone services cut their health rapidly deteriorates as they go into withdrawal. Many drug users, in desperation, will seek out replacement illicit drugs. HIV and overdose risks often rise dramatically as a result. In the Donbas area that includes Donetsk, an extra 495 new cases of HIV were detected in 2015.

Click here to access the statement online.

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