The Philippine Online Chronicles

A report recently released by UNICEF shows that an underground HIV epidemic is building up at an alarming rate in Eastern Europe and Central Asia.

Among the factors that have been recognized as contributing to the rapid spread of HIV in the region are pervasive drug use, high-risk sexual behaviors, and a strong social stigma that impedes people from searching for information to protect themselves or from seeking treatment, the report said.

Entitled "Blame and Banishment: The underground HIV epidemic affecting children in Eastern Europe and Central Asia," the report zeroes in on the issues that are faced by children who are living with the virus, adolescents who engage in dangerous behaviors, and pregnant women who use drugs. It also highlights the struggles of the more than one million children and young people who live and work on the streets of the region, which is marked by political and economic turmoil.

Young people in the lower classes or who are otherwise termed "marginalized" by UNICEF are in greater peril of contracting HIV, as they are exposed on a daily basis to multiple risk factors, such as drug use, commercial sex, and other forms of exploitation and abuse. Eastern Europe and Central Asia are said to be home to almost one fourth of the total number of injecting drug users (3.7 million) in the world.

Compounding these problems is the fact that extant social welfare and health services have not been designed to address the needs of the youth, especially the adolescents who run the greatest risk of being infected. Instead, they tend to be subjected to "moralistic judgments, public recrimination, and even criminal prosecution when they try to seek treatment and information on HIV," which act as impediments to addressing the epidemic.

UNICEF Executive Director Anthony Lake said, "Children and adolescents living on the margins of society need access to health and social welfare services, not a harsh dose of disapproval." Lake pointed out that a mere 24 percent of those who need treatment in Eastern Europe and Central Asia actually receive it. The region presently has the second lowest treatment coverage ratio for HIV in the world.

Adolescents and adults are not the only ones who have to bear the social stigma that is associated with HIV.  Children living with HIV are usually barred from schools, and deal with rejection and abuse when their status is revealed. A foster mother of an HIV-positive child, identified as Alla, said that her son was ostracized by his peers when his status became known. "His classmates say that he is 'disgusting' and refuse to play with him," she said.

"Blame and Banishment", which was launched last July at the XVIII International AIDS Conference in Vienna, Austria, underscores the need for a paradigm shift in dealing with HIV.  Michel Sidibé, the Executive Director of Joint United Nations Program on HIV and AIDS (UNAIDS), said that children and adolescents in Eastern Europe and Central Asia ought to be empowered and protected in order to "break the trajectory of the AIDS epidemic" in the region. "It is our responsibility to ensure that they have access to HIV prevention and treatment services," he said.

The full report may be read at the UNICEF website.