News & Announcements
IHRD Director Calls for Sweeping Policy Changes to Address HIV Epidemic in Eastern Europe and Former Soviet Union
The HIV infection rate is currently higher in Eastern Europe and Central Asia than anywhere else in the world, and public health systems in the economically distressed region are ill-equipped to deal with the surging epidemic. In a keynote speech at the 14th International AIDS Conference in Barcelona, Spain in July 2002, Kasia Malinowska-Sempruch, the director of OSI's International Harm Reduction Development program (IHRD), discussed the sobering HIV/AIDS statistics and trends and called on health officials, NGO workers, and activists to push for the adoption of sweeping harm reduction policies that can help slow the infection rate.
Malinowska-Sempruch also appealed for assistance and improved health care for those who are already infected, most of whom have no access to treatment. It is a moral imperative, she asserted, for the world to turn its attention to this region as it struggles to deal with a simultaneous—and unprecedented—rise in injecting drug use and HIV infection while stigma, discrimination, and misunderstanding remain common.
Read a transcript of Malinowska-Sempruch's speech at the 14th International AIDS Conference.
News stories about the speech appeared in the following publications:
