Eve of an HIV Epidemic in Romania

Eastern Europe and central Asia have the world's fastest-growing HIV epidemic, and experts say injecting drug use largely is to blame. Regional HIV prevalence has grown 66 percent since 2001 and now stands at 1.5 million people, according to UNAIDS. "The only difference between eastern Europe and Africa is time," said Shona Schonning, an activist with the Lithuania-based Eurasian Harm Reduction Network.

Romania, however, has been an exception. Its epidemic is unusual in that most HIV patients were infected in the 1980s through an ill-conceived and unsanitary blood transfusion program that targeted anemia in the nation's orphanages. In 2001, a favorable deal with drug makers helped Romania become the first eastern European nation to provide universal HIV medications. Needle-exchange programs (NEPs) run by non-governmental organizations last year distributed more than 1.6 million syringes to 7,500 addicts, helping to hold HIV prevalence among drug injectors to just 1 percent - the lowest figure in eastern Europe. Now, however, that progress is in jeopardy.

The World Bank no longer classifies Romania as a developing nation, meaning it is ineligible for the international grants that fund its NEPs. Since June, UNICEF, the Open Society Institute and the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, TB and Malaria all have pulled funds from Romania's HIV efforts. "Where you don't provide interventions for drug injectors, there's a potential for the epidemic to rage out of control," said Martin Christopher Donoghoe, the World Health Organization's HIV/AIDS project manager for Europe.

Romania's government, coping with an economy that shrank 7 percent last year, is unlikely to pick up the slack. Some, however, hold out hope.

Early in the decade, Romania "was the model for the region," said Eduard Petrescu, UNAIDS country coordinator. "I hope in two or three years it will be seen as the model of how to deal with HIV/AIDS during an economic crisis."

The Friends of AIDS Foundation is dedicated to enhancing the quality of life for HIV positive individuals and empowering people to make healthy choices to prevent the spread of the HIV virus. To learn more about The Friends of AIDS Foundation, please visit: http://www.friendsofaids.org.


TOGETHER WE REMAIN STRONG!