Innovative new partnership to provide free HIV testing and HIV/AIDS medical care in Saint-Petersburg

Oct 28 2009

AIDS Healthcare Foundation (AHF), Saint-Petersburg Government Healthcare Institution’s Center for Prevention and Control of Infectious Diseases; AIDS, Statistics, Health, a respected regional non-governmental organization (NGO); and Saint-Petersburg Government Healthcare Institution’s Policlinic N109 are honored to announce that they are forming an innovative new partnership to provide free HIV testing and prevention services and HIV/AIDS medical care in Saint-Petersburg, Russia’s second largest city. Medical care will include the provision of lifesaving antiretroviral treatment (ART) to people living with HIV/AIDS via a newly established outpatient HIV unit created by the partnership and located at the City Policlinic N109 in Frunzensky District, Saint-Petersburg. The partnership will be recognized and celebrated in a formal signing ceremony of a memorandum of understanding (MOU) in Saint-Petersburg on Wednesday October 28^th.

The MOU will be signed by Dr. Jorge Saavedra, Chief of Global Affairs for AIDS Healthcare Foundation; Professor Nikolai Belyakov, Academician of the Russian Medical Academy of Science, Director of St-Petersburg City AIDS Center; Professor Aza Rakhmanova, head of the regional NGO, ‘AIDS, Statistics, Health,’ and Dr. M.B. Fridman, Chief Physician for City Policlinic N109. The partnership will address the urgent need for continuous provision of broad-scale access to antiretroviral treatment, HIV testing and counseling as well as for support services to persons living with HIV/AIDS (PLWH) based on a patient-centered approach. As a result of the project’s implementation, PLWH will have the ability to receive ART closer to their place of residence and they will not need to travel to another part of the city to do tests and get regular check-ups—they can access all these services at the Frunzensky center. This will support better adherence to treatment and help both patients and medical providers better manage the chronic illness. In addition, this approach will help to better address referrals to other services when needed on a district level.

“It is a great privilege for AIDS Healthcare Foundation to join together with our esteemed partners in Saint-Petersburg to establish this innovative new facility which will provide HIV testing, antiretroviral treatment, medical care and support services for people living with HIV/AIDS,” said Dr. Jorge Saavedra, Chief of Global Affairs for AIDS Healthcare Foundation. “The primary goal of this collaboration is to provide convenient access to such lifesaving services using a more patient-centered approach. Through this partnership, we hope to expand the number of people living with HIV/AIDS on treatment, and toward that goal, we envision the creation of additional outpatient and HIV and chronic viral diseases prevention units in other districts of Saint-Petersburg in the future.”

In addition to AHF’s Dr. Saavedra, AHF Senior Vice President Peter Reis and Zoya Shabarova, HIV/AIDS Adviser, Eastern Europe for AHF will attend and participate in the signing ceremony.

HIV/AIDS in Saint-Petersburg
Currently nearly 34,000 people with HIV are officially registered in Saint-Petersburg and approximately 3,300 patients are receiving antiretroviral treatment. In Frunzensky District—where the new partnership will have its first testing and treatment facility—there are 1,500 people with HIV officially registered, including 170 patients on ART.

“The approval of this new partnership is a major milestone for each organization involved, and we are eager to implement the care and treatment activities outlined in the memorandum of understanding,” said Zoya Shabarova, AHF’s HIV/AIDS Adviser for Eastern Europe, who was instrumental in coordinating the collaboration in Saint-Petersburg. “It is our wish that this inaugural outpatient testing and treatment facility in Frunzensky District, Saint-Petersburg—AHF’s first antiretroviral treatment site in Russia—will be the first of many in the partnership, and we hope that it may also serve as a symbol of hope for the possibility of access to lifesaving treatment for many of those living with HIV/AIDS in Russia today.”