The Compassion of Russian Health-Care Advances
"HIV is an illness that often sweeps up those people who aren't socially secure. Many of them were put in the (medical) records at some point, but then they disappear for many years and by the time they show up at the hospital again they're nearly dead."Of Crimea's two million people, about 12,000 are HIV-positive, according to a 2012 UNICEF survey. Facing a rapid growth in the infection rate, the Ukrainian Health Ministry reported the infection rate in decline, as from 2012. That was when the country was relatively stable, when such matters were still front and centre, not pushed back on the agenda. Crimea is no longer the responsibility of the government of Ukraine.
"Our goal is to find them, convince them to come to the doctor and not miss their treatment."
Denis Troshin, methadone therapy coordinator, Sevastopol
And the HIV-positive former Ukrainian responsibilities are now dependent on Russia.
What occurred to make such a difference in the rate of HIV-infection was a harm-reduction effort undertaken by Ukraine to wean its 800 Crimean-based heroin addicts and other needle-drug users from their self-harm. HIV infections were fought by leading patients away from hypodermic needles that spread the AIDS-causing virus. Needle sharing is a common carelessness among people addicted to hard drugs.
Methadone therapy proved to be the key unlocking the safe offering protection from HIV/AIDS.
According to the International HIV/AIDS Alliance of Ukraine which assists in the funding of local projects with money from the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, drug injectors are responsible for 62% of new HIV infections. Through their methadone-implemented program, that number declined to 33% by 2013.
Russia has inherited through its aggressive intimidation threatening military violence, Ukraine's Crimean military installations, its ports on the Black Sea, and most of Ukraine's naval fleet. Along with all the geography of Crimea, the land, natural resources and civic infrastructure. And, as well, all the social-stream activities formerly the responsibility of the Government of Ukraine, including heroin addicts dependent on methadone programs to enable them to leave their addiction.
Except, just as the handover of Crimea was anything but an agreement between neighbours, the fate of those thousands of the region's addicts looks fairly dismal considering the difference in outlook between Ukraine and Russia. Russia bans methadone on the theory that most supplies will simply end up on the criminal market. Russia's social welfare protocol for such addicts is the recommendation that they go cold turkey; no medical intervention required.
And this forthright, compassionate insistence that people take stock of their situation and manage their affairs with the strength of discipline by curing themselves through abrupt abstinence -- rather than rely on methadone which blocks withdrawal pain, aches and chills -- accounts for the rapid spread of HIV in Russia. For, according to the Russian Federal AIDS Center, the number of Russians registered as infected has increased by close to 11% in 2013.
Labels: Conflict, Crimea, Drugs, Health, Human Relations, Medicine, Russia, Ukraine
posted by Pieface @ Sunday, April 06, 2014
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