Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) successfully hands over HIV/AIDS project in Transnistria and calls on Moldovan authorities and Transnitrian donor community to pay more attention to the health needs of Transnistrian population.
The high prevalence of HIV/AIDS in Transnistria, which is four times that of Moldova, is attributed to the fact that the region was excluded for many years from the international assistance to treat and fight the disease. MSF’s programme was set up two years ago to urgently address the needs of the HIV positive population. MSF asserts that the policies of excluding Transnistria from humanitarian assistance have only succeeded in increasing disease and unnecessary suffering.
As the problem is particularly acute in the prison system, MSF prolonged its services to prisons until April 2009 and strongly encourages the Transnistrian Health and Justice Ministries to cooperate in maintaining and extending HIV/AIDS services in the prison system.
In addition to establishing a sustainable HIV/AIDS treatment programme MSF also had the aim of demonstrating to other actors that it was possible to work in the unrecognized republic. While there has been progress over the last two years in the field of HIV and TB much remains to be done in this field as well as in other areas of healthcare.
“The Transnistrian authorities need to do a lot more to make it possible for humanitarian assistance to reach its population. Complicated and time consuming customs procedures as well as layers of unnecessary bureaucratic red tape act as a disincentive to organizations that genuinely wish to assist their people. In the area of HIV/AIDS the near absence of prevention and harm-reduction activities serves only as a catalyst for increasing the spread of the disease” said Mark Walsh, MSF Head of Mission.
Moldova, on the other hand, which is annually the recipient of tens of millions of dollars of humanitarian assistance shares only a small percentage of this with the Transnistrian population and all too often this comes with strings attached. Over the last two years MSF has witnessed a persistent unwillingness to separate humanitarian from political goals. Intergovernmental organizations as well as individual international donors must no longer allow medical or humanitarian needs to be sacrificed for political objectives.
“Increasingly there is talk of extending projects and funding being made available. However, we are witnessing very little action on the ground. For instance, there is an international ‘Donors group’ on Transnistria that meets bi-monthly in Chisinau but, to be honest, very little is donated. From a pubic health point of view ignoring the health needs will lead to greater prevalence of infectious diseases and increased hardship for both the Moldovan and Transnistrian population”, claimed Walsh.
MSF now appeals to all actors, both local and International, to address the humanitarian and medical needs of this isolated.
For more information please contact Mark Walsh, Head of Mission MSF in Moldova ( 373 22) 237165