Moldova spends 12m lei annually on antiretroviral treatment

A sum of 12 million lei is spent yearly in Moldova on the patients who need antiretroviral treatment. The financing is allocated through the National HIV/AIDS and Sexually Transmitted Diseases Prevention and Control Program. Another source of financing is the health insurance provided by the National Health Insurance Company. Antiretroviral medications are also offered by donors of the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria. In a news conference on Thursday, the deputy head of the National Public Health Center Stefan Gheorghita said that over 1 300 persons are now receiving antiretroviral treatment. “We have drugs in store for the first half of the next year. We ordered medications for the whole 2012. The treatment included in the obligatory health insurance system costs 4 853 lei, without antiviral treatment that costs between 850 lei and 3 510 lei,” he stated. About 130 HIV-infected pregnant women receive antiretroviral treatment every year. In 2010, four of the 124 HIV-infected women gave birth to infected children. Minister of Health Andrei Usatyi said that the National HIV/AIDS and Sexually Transmitted Diseases Prevention and Control Program for 2011-2015 was devised with the aim of promoting a healthy lifestyle and preventing the mentioned diseases. In Moldova there are 7 014 officially recorded HIV-infected persons, 2 205 of whom in Transnistria. In 84.6% of the cases, the infection is transmitted by heterosexual ways. The number of HIV-infected persons in rural areas has increased during the last few years (36.7%).