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Injecting drug users lose therapy in annexed Crimea

Injecting drug users lose therapy in annexed Crimea

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The annexation of Crimea and the ongoing conflict in eastern Ukraine are creating an HIV/AIDS crisis, according to a United Nations envoy.

Since Russia occupied Crimea in March 2014, injecting drug users are no longer receiving substitution treatment which had helped to reverse the growing AIDS epidemic in Ukraine.

Michel Kazatchkine, the UN Secretary-General’s Special Envoy for AIDS in Eastern Europe and Central Asia told Derrick Mbatha that 40 per cent of the patients who were receiving treatment are HIV-positive.

Duration: 4’59”

Photo Credit
UN Photo/Eskinder Debebe