Home ›› 22 Jan 2023 ›› World Biz
When Svitlana fled war-torn Ukraine for Estonia, she not only had to contend with all the usual challenges of being a refugee, she also had her HIV treatment to worry about.
The 45-year-old, whose husband unknowingly infected her when they met, had been managing her illness for years with medication and now, in a new country, needed to ensure her supply.
“I was running out of pills... I tried to register for a doctor’s appointment on my own, but the waiting list was really long,” the mother-of-three told AFP.
Fortunately, at the refugee centre she came across information about the Estonian Network of People Living with HIV (EHPV), an NGO offering assistance.
Svitlana had come to the right place.
The organisation is well-versed in the ins and outs of the illness, having been around for nearly two decades as the country fought to rein in its transmission rate.
“I called the volunteer and told them about my problem... A few days passed and they got me a doctor’s appointment (and) went there with me.
“Right now, I’m on therapy I got in Estonia. I feel good, my test results are really good... My immunity is good and the viral load is zero,” she said.
“I’m not dangerous for society, other people. Neither in everyday life nor at work, anywhere.”
The spread of HIV was once out of control in Estonia.
For years the small Baltic state had the highest transmission rate within the European Union.
“We had a very difficult situation, a concentrated epidemic among injecting drug users,” said Lachin Aliyev, EHPV board chairman.
“But in 20 years we’ve been able to stabilise the situation,” Aliyev told AFP.
Things were at their worst at the turn of the century, with 1,474 new cases diagnosed in Estonia in 2001, or a rate of nearly 108 per 100,000 people.
