Death of 43 female drug users in Russia was preventable

12/12/06 - GNP+, the Global Network of People Living with HIV/AIDS is outraged to learn about the deaths of 43 drug dependent women - most of whom were living with HIV - and two of their nurses during a fire in a drug rehabilitation clinic in Moscow, Russia on December 9.

"These deaths should never have happened," says Kevin Moody, International Coordinator of GNP+, "Prison-like settings are no place for people trying to recover from drug addiction. They should be able to enjoy their full human rights and have access to state-of-the-art care, based on evidence-based treatment strategies."

In spite of overwhelming scientific evidence the Russian government ignores harm reduction strategies such as opiate substitution treatment and syringe exchange programs. Instead, it relies on punitive and coercive measures that do not take into account the future potential of its citizens and their right to accessing appropriate prevention and treatment services, both for drug dependency and for HIV.

The recent annual report of UNAIDS has again shown the HIV-epidemic in the Russian Federation is driven by injecting drug use. Without wide-scale syringe exchange programs, with methadone and buprenorphine still illegal in the country, and by refusing active drug users living with HIV access to life saving antiretroviral treatment, the Russian government is defaulting its own population in failing to provide tools to control the expansion of the HIV epidemic in its country.

GNP+ calls for the Russian Government to implement a comprehensive rights-based approach to injecting drug users including evidence based harm reduction strategies. In addition, GNP+ asks the Russian Government to fully respect the human rights of all people living with or vulnerable to HIV, by providing them with treatment, care and support in a supportive, humane and non coercive environment that does not endanger their lives even more.

FOR MORE INFORMATION
GNP+ issued its position paper on Injecting Drug Users and Access to HIV treatment in November 2005. The paper is available in English , Spanish and Russian and can be downloaded here