Alliance co-organises and sponsors the First National Harm Reduction Conference in Ukraine
27 March 2006
Over 300 representatives from government, non-governmental and international organisations, and experts involved in harm reduction and HIV/AIDS prevention and treatment work in the Commonwealth of Independent States, attended the First National Conference on the Reduction of Drug-use Related Harm, which focused on the introduction of substitution and maintenance therapy programmes in Ukraine.
The Alliance in Ukraine was a major donor and co-organiser of the conference, which was held from 15-17 February. Ukraine’s Ministry of Health was another co-sponsor, the first time it had acted as a major sponsor of such an event.
An estimated 70% of people living with HIV/AIDS in Ukraine are injecting drug users. Opioid-substitution treatment reduces HIV risk behaviour and enhances the uptake of and adherence to anti-retroviral treatment by helping people to manage their dependency.
“Substitution therapy provides the opportunity for a better physical and psychological state for drug-dependent patients, creating conditions where anti-retroviral therapy can be introduced among HIV-positive drug users. It also reduces crime levels and, for many patients, is a real chance to return to normal life and work,” said Olena Gulievich, infectious diseases doctor at the Odesa AIDS Centre. Dr Gulievich is a member of a multidisciplinary team providing substitution therapy to clients of the Odesa Drug Dependency Treatment Clinic project.
The Alliance and partners are working towards a large-scale introduction of substitution therapy in Ukraine. Under the Global Fund-supported “Overcoming the HIV epidemic in Ukraine” programme, buprenorphine substitution projects are reaching around 200 clients, three quarters of whom are HIV positive, in Kyiv, Donetsk, Odesa, Dnipropetrovsk, Mykolyv, Kherson and Crimea. By September 2006, the plan is to provide substitution therapy to 500 injecting drug users, increasing to 3,000 by September 2007 and to 6,000 by September 2008.
However, according to recent World Health Organization estimates, 60,000 injecting drug users would need to be reached to have the required impact on the HIV/AIDS epidemic. But to date, substitution therapy, especially methadone, has remained controversial in Ukraine (see Alliance’s national anti-retroviral treatment work threatened by Ukraine Committee move to ban methadone).
“Without significant improvement of access to substitution therapy we won’t be able to sufficiently increase the scale of HIV prevention activities and will fail to provide anti-retroviral AIDS treatment to the majority of people who need it, which in turn may have a dramatic impact on the efficiency of our response to the HIV/AIDS epidemic in Ukraine,” said Andriy Klepikov, executive director of Alliance Ukraine, who addressed the conference at the opening and closing ceremonies.
“In the context of Ukraine, where the HIV/AIDS epidemic is concentrated and the HIV spread rate is among one of the most rapidly growing rates in the world, introducing substitution therapy is the only chance to bring the HIV/AIDS epidemic to a halt or under control.”
UNDP Ukraine, WTO and the International Renaissance Foundation were also conference organisers and donors.
