People living with HIV from EECA Call to the international society
Remember the dead – take care of living ones!
International Charitable Organization “East Europe and Central Asia Union of People Living with HIV” (ECUO) calls everyone to jointly support and join to the initiative HIV Outcomes – aims to pay more attention to the quality of life of People Living with HIV.
This year, on the International AIDS Candlelight Memorial day, when the whole world and our region is struggling with the spread of COVID-19 pandemic, ECUO calls on all stakeholders to consolidate efforts for ensuring the quality of life of people living with HIV.
In the countries of Eastern Europe and Central Asia, the COVID-19 pandemic exacerbated the vulnerability of people living with HIV in the context of extremely inadequate access to treatment, and often its inconsistency with modern recommendations of the International AIDS Society for the countries of the WHO European Region.
Due to increased supply disruptions, countries in the EECA region lack an adequate supply of ARVs, that is why medicines are often given out for one month instead of the required 3-6 month supply, which puts people living with HIV at risk of becoming infected with COVID-19. ECUO experts continue to report more frequent cases of replacement of treatment regimens for non-medical reasons in countries of Eastern Europe and Central Asia.
We are concerned that during the COVID-19 pandemic, there is often a lack of routine assistance due to the difficult treatment of HIV related co-morbidities and co-infections.
People living with HIV in the EECA region can live longer, but they need urgent improvements in treatment to achieve better health and quality of life outcomes. We need a coordinated approach to long-term and high-quality treatment of HIV, adapted to individual needs, since people living with HIV need access to a wide range of services, not limited to treating only HIV itself.
During this difficult time of struggle with COVID-19, ECUO calls on the countries of Eastern Europe and Central Asia, UNAIDS, the World Health Organization and the international community to join the European HIV Outcomes initiative and focus on reaching the fourth 90 – ensuring quality of life for 90% of PLHIV in the world and our region in particular.
More about the initiative: https://hivoutcomes.eu/
Co-Chair ECUO – Wojciech Tomczynski
Co-Chair ECUO – Vladimir Zhovtyak