Robert Carr Civil Society Network Fund

The International Steering Committee of the Robert Carr Civil Society Network Fund has decided to fund 24 networks in its inaugural year of operation.

Man still can be saved

Four years ago he decided to help his close relative and volunteered to be a donor for her. He had to undergo some tests and the results of analyses found hepatitis C in his blood. He can die at any moment. Viktor Shandrovskis is diagnosed liver cirrhosis; 90% of liver is already damaged. This man still can be saved if he will have liver transplanted as soon as possible.

Joint Open letter to the Heads of Government of Latvia

We, HIV/AIDS NGOs, are calling Government to take definite action for saving lives of HIV/AIDS affected people and starting AIDS treatment in Latvia from CD4 ≤350c/mm3 immediately: introducing budget changes and improvements in the treatment guidelines recommending change 200 CD4 to 350.

Hope for Hepatitis C patients: patients succeed in overturning first ever product patent on medicine in India

In a landmark victory for patients’ groups fighting against patents to ensure access to medicines, the Intellectual Property Appellate Board (IPAB) has revoked a patent granted in India to F. Hoffmann-La Roche AG (Roche) for pegylated interferon alfa-2a (Pegasys, a medicine used to treat Hepatitis C) as well as held that a patients’ group can challenge the validity of granted patents.

Latvia: CD4 cell count case

"Legal conclusion on the State’s defined (2009) Initiation of asymptomatic HIV infection’s treatment at CD4 cell count <200 cells/ml"

Internship on experience of tuberculosis and HIV programs in Latvia

Tuberculosis Foundation of Latvia in collaboration with National Institute of Health Development, Estonia, are organizing internship for community based organizations and health care institutions staff working with vulnerable groups – injective drug users (IDU) and people living with HIV (PLHIV) from 17 to 21 of September, 2012 in Latvia.

International tuberculosis training in Riga

Tuberculosis Foundation of Latvia in collaboration with National Institute of Health Development, Estonia, are organizing 2 days International training in Latvia for community based organizations (CBO) and health care institutions staff working with vulnerable groups – injective drug users (IDU) and people living with HIV (PLHIV) from 27 to 28 of September, 2012, in Riga, Latvia.

Activists at the International AIDS Conference disrupted a seminar sponsored by Roche to protest the high prices and "Big Pharma’s greed”

Activists at the International AIDS Conference disrupt a session sponsored by the pharmaceutical giant, Roche - why did they take action? The treatment for Hep C (pegylated interferon) is marketed by big pharmaceutical companies (Merck and Roche) and costs thousands of dollars for a few weeks. As a result, access to treatment in transitional and developing countries is very low.

Where transmitting HIV is a crime

The Global Commission on HIV and the Law, a group commissioned by the U.N. Development Program and chaired by former Brazilian President Fernando Henrique Cardoso, has released a study on the role laws play in the spread of HIV/AIDS.

«The waiting list. Hepatitis C treatment»

We, people living with hepatitis C and their families, representatives of the public sector and of civil society organizations, are signing up for the Hepatitis C Treatment Waiting List to demand affordable, high-quality hepatitis C treatment. Governments can’t afford not to treat hepatitis C, but we can’t afford the treatment. The cost of pegylated interferon (PEG-INF) – the key component of today’s most effective hepatitis C treatment – makes it inaccessible for the majority of those who need it. Merck and Roche, the pharmaceutical giants that produce PEG-INF, keep the price for treatment as high as 15,000 USD for the average 48-week course of treatment in Eastern Europe and Central Asia.

Patients in Control: The Fight for the Right to Life

Whether we like it or not, every one of us will one day become a patient. Some more rarely, others more often, some on a regular basis. At the same time, we can all agree that the position of a patient in Russia, especially one who is neither rich nor has good connections, is not very enviable.

The Baltics HIV meeting

„HIV patient care in the Baltics – commonalities and differences”, 17 - 18 May, 2012, Riga, Latvia. This meeting is organized by Latvian Association of Infectologists and Hepatologists supported by GSK Latvia on behalf of ViiV Healthcare.

HIV in Europe Copenhagen 2012 Conference, 19‐20 March 2012

The HIV epidemic is rapidly expanding in Eastern Europe. In Russia, Ukraine and Belarus the number of people living with HIV has almost tripled since 2000 and mortality is increasing. Poor access to antiretroviral therapy and prevention, serious social stigma and low political priority in some settings facilitate HIV transmission. If you are a person living with HIV in Eastern Europe, it is extremely difficult to get access to treatment and prevention. Today, access to HIV treatment in Malawi is better than access to treatment in St. Petersburg.

Substitution treatment with heroin issue

The results, published in the New England Journal of Medicine, showed that patients treated with the prescribed heroin were more likely to stay in treatment or quit heroin altogether and more likely to reduce their use of illegal drugs and other illegal activities than patients treated with oral methadone.

Drug helps purge hidden HIV virus, study shows

A team of researchers at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill have successfully flushed latent HIV infection from hiding, with a drug used to treat certain types of lymphoma.

Oslo Declaration on HIV Criminalisation

A growing body of evidence suggests that the criminalisation of HIV non-disclosure, potential exposure and non-intentional transmission is doing more harm than good in terms of its impact on public health and human rights. Although there may be a limited role for criminal law in rare cases in which people transmit HIV with malicious intent, we prefer to see people living with HIV supported and empowered from the moment of diagnosis, so that even these rare cases may be prevented. This requires a non-punitive, non-criminal HIV prevention approach centred within communities, where expertise about, and understanding of, HIV issues is best found. (Prepared by International Civil society in Oslo, Norway, on 13th February 2012)

Great Britain: Free HIV treatment for foreign nationals

Ministers say treating people with HIV means they are unlikely to pass the infection on to others. Foreign nationals are to be offered free treatment for HIV on the National Health Service under plans backed by the government.

Censorship and Dirty Needles Fuel HIV/AIDS Epidemic

An estimated 980,000 people are living with HIV in Russia; in some regions as many as 80 percent of those with HIV contracted the virus through contaminated needles, but the Russian government’s ‘zero tolerance’ approach to illicit drugs has stalled the use of methadone across the country.

Overdose is preventable

Overdose is a major cause of preventable death among injecting drug users (IDU) in many regions in the world. Although the scale of the problem is huge, the official overdose statistics are often unreliable and dramatically underestimate real levels. As a result, governments do not have a comprehensive overview of the overdose situation and related deaths as well as consistent response strategy.

Report on Opioid substitution therapy in Eurasia

In January 2012, IDPC and EHRN released a policy brief on OST in Eurasia. Entitled Opioid substitution therapy in Eurasia: How to increase the access and improve the quality, the policy brief aims at providing an up-to-date overview of the state of OST service provision in Eurasia, with a particular focus on access and quality issues.