Patients in Romania with chronic diseases including HIV/AIDS are facing medicine shortages due to the global recession, local media and health workers say. AIDS patients have launched an open letter campaign asking President Traian Basescu and Parliament to intervene and ensure treatment, according to the Romanian Libera newspaper.
AIDS cases in Romania were fueled by Communist-era President Nicolae Ceausescu's push to drive up birth rates in the nation. He outlawed birth control and abortion, swelling Romania's orphan population. State orphanages had little money for food or vitamins, so they gave the children "micro-transfusions" from paid adult blood donors, and nurses often reused needles.
In 2004, Romania's government said it had managed with foreign donor support to put most of those with HIV on treatment. The government also issues patients food and transportation subsidies. Of the some 12,000 people in Romania who are HIV-infected, about 9,000 are on treatment. Now however, many are left with only a few days of pills remaining, local media have reported.
"Our wonderful doctors have worked so hard to keep these kids alive for so long, it would be tragic if they're endangered by a shortage of antiretrovirals," said Mary Veal, who has worked with AIDS patients for years in Romanian hospitals.
08/18/09
ROMANIA: Supply of AIDS Drugs Running Low Where Epidemic Had Been Controlled
Source: New York Times:: Donald G. McNeil Jr.; Courtesy of the CDC National Center for HIV, STD, and TB Prevention