{"id":11035,"date":"2012-01-16T17:10:45","date_gmt":"2012-01-16T17:10:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/patients.org.ua\/?p=11035"},"modified":"2024-04-15T10:50:50","modified_gmt":"2024-04-15T10:50:50","slug":"patients-are-heard-the-government-will-ensure-funds-for-the-procurement-of-arv-drugs-for-all-in-need","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/patients.org.ua\/en\/achievements\/patients-are-heard-the-government-will-ensure-funds-for-the-procurement-of-arv-drugs-for-all-in-need\/","title":{"rendered":"Patients are heard \u2014 the Government will ensure funds for the procurement of ARV drugs for all in need"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>For the first time since independence, NGOs managed to\u00a0convince government officials to\u00a0provide full funding of\u00a0HIV\u00a0\/ AIDS treatment.<\/p>\n<p>\u00ab<em>A\u00a0few years ago receiving life-saving treatment seemed to\u00a0be\u00a0unattainable dream<\/em>,\u00a0\u2014 says <strong>Dmytro Sherembey<\/strong>, the Head of\u00a0patients\u2019 organization UCAB. \u2014\u00a0<em>In\u00a090ies patients with AIDS were tied to\u00a0bed and left to\u00a0die<\/em>\u00bb.<\/p>\n<p>Each year the situation was getting worse. The main problem was that the government did not understand what HIV\u00a0\u2014 is\u00a0not just a\u00a0disease. It\u00a0is\u00a0an\u00a0epidemic that annually takes thousands of\u00a0lives. According to\u00a0unofficial UNAIDS data, in\u00a02011 360,000 Ukrainian were infected with HIV. More than 40,000 of\u00a0them urgently needed treatment, and this number was rapidly growing every day. Therefore, in\u00a02011 the idea of\u00a0action \u00abLet me\u00a0live!\u00bb appeared.<\/p>\n<p>Action \u00ab<strong>Let me\u00a0live!<\/strong>\u00bb united not only patients and their families, but also the outstanding people of\u00a0Ukraine and officials. Two NGOs\u00a0\u2014 Ukrainian Network of\u00a0People Living with HIV and Patient Organization UCAB took over the job of\u00a0organizing the action.<\/p>\n<p>HIV-positive children, children whose relatives were HIV-infected, signed postcards to\u00a0the authorities\u00a0\u2014 \u00abLet me\u00a0live!\u00bb. These cards were designed by\u00a0the famous Ukrainian artist Evgenia Gapchinskaya. The painter portrayed a\u00a0family in\u00a0which one member of\u00a0the family remained not painted\u00a0\u2014 the one whose life remains in\u00a0jeopardy.<\/p>\n<p><iframe src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/pFhzCYhej4k\" width=\"100%\" height=\"420\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>Besides, 500 cards were collected personally for the President, and handed to\u00a0him right after the press conference in\u00a0Kiev. At\u00a0a\u00a0press conference at\u00a0the Children\u2019s Center for HIV-positive children gathered media representatives not only from Ukraine but also from around the world. In\u00a0front of\u00a0their cameras the little savers signed last cards with plead to\u00a0help survive.<\/p>\n<p>Immediately after the press conference there was the order to\u00a0the Prime Minister of\u00a0Ukraine to\u00a0finance the treatment of\u00a0HIV-positive people who needed it\u00a0on\u00a0the official website of\u00a0the President of\u00a0Ukraine.<\/p>\n<p>It\u00a0took a\u00a0few months until all the numbers have been agreed and deputies voted for the chance to\u00a0live for 42\u00a0thousand Ukrainians and their families. Those Ukrainians, who now can continue to\u00a0live a\u00a0full life and to\u00a0raise their children.<\/p>\n<p>On\u00a0January\u00a016, 2012 The Minister of\u00a0Health officially proclaimed that this year the state will treat 42,000 Ukrainian with AIDS. It\u00a0was a\u00a0victory. For the first time in\u00a0the history of\u00a0Ukraine government money for HIV\/AIDS patients\u2019 communities were doubled.<\/p>\n<p>\u00ab<em>We\u00a0are just at\u00a0the beginning. Ahead there is\u00a0a\u00a0struggle for every pill, for appropriate use of\u00a0every penny for life\u00a0\u2014 for next year. We\u00a0even now managed to\u00a0lead the patients into specialized commissions of\u00a0the Ministry of\u00a0Health of\u00a0Ukraine that compose the lists of\u00a0medicines for procurement. But the main work is\u00a0waiting for\u00a0us. But this year, we\u00a0realized that involvement and persistence can change if\u00a0not the world, but the life of\u00a042,000 families forever. We\u00a0will continue to\u00a0monitor the use and content of\u00a0the State Budget of\u00a0Ukraine\u00a0\u2014 and not just HIV\/AIDS. We\u00a0hope that other Patient Organizations join our initiatives. Therefore, people suffering from hepatitis, cancer , tuberculosis will also be\u00a0able to\u00a0receive quality care in\u00a0full in\u00a0the coming years<\/em>\u00bb,\u00a0\u2014 says <strong>Olga Stefanyshyna<\/strong>, the Executive director of\u00a0UCAB.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>For the first time since independence, NGOs managed to\u00a0convince government officials to\u00a0provide full funding of\u00a0HIV\u00a0\/ AIDS treatment. \u00abA\u00a0few years ago receiving life-saving treatment seemed to\u00a0be\u00a0unattainable dream,\u00a0\u2014 says Dmytro Sherembey, the Head of\u00a0patients\u2019 organization UCAB. \u2014\u00a0In\u00a090ies patients with AIDS were tied to\u00a0bed and left to\u00a0die\u00bb. Each year the situation was getting worse. The main problem was [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":3237,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_seopress_analysis_target_kw":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[170],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11035","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-achievements"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/patients.org.ua\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11035","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/patients.org.ua\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/patients.org.ua\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/patients.org.ua\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/patients.org.ua\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11035"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/patients.org.ua\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11035\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11036,"href":"https:\/\/patients.org.ua\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11035\/revisions\/11036"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/patients.org.ua\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3237"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/patients.org.ua\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11035"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/patients.org.ua\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11035"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/patients.org.ua\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11035"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}