HIV patients in prisons complained about the lack of certain medicines. This was reported to Izvestia by representatives of the public movement Patient Control. They received appeals from correctional colonies in seven Russian regions – Samara, Volgograd, Leningrad, Nizhny Novgorod, Novosibirsk, Rostov and Sverdlovsk regions.
“My wife is HIV-positive, she does not receive therapy, because she is not in the colony, and it is not known when she will be. Help me please. The people sitting there really need therapy, ”wrote the husband of the convict from the Samara region.
As follows from the reports, interruptions arose with the drugs atazanavir, dolutegravir, ritonavir, darunavir and a number of others.
In the Patient Control movement, they are confident that the messages received from the colonies are “only the tip of the iceberg.”
“Patients often do not complain about interruptions in treatment, fearing that they may worsen their relationship with the colony staff, be reprimanded, placed in a punishment cell or subject to other sanctions,” Yulia Vereshchagina, an activist from Patient Control, told Izvestia.
The movement appealed to the leadership of the Ministry of Health and the Federal Penitentiary Service, reporting on complaints and listing the regions and correctional institutions from which they came.
The Federal Penitentiary Service did not confirm the shortage of drugs to Izvestia and indicated that “the stock of drugs in the institution is sufficient and allows it to provide the necessary treatment for patients with HIV infection.”
The press service of the Ministry of Health reported that the need for the Federal Penitentiary Service was approved in October 2022 and purchases are being made “in accordance with the schedule.”
