Also available in: Español
Unacceptable, unjust and without humanity, were the expressions from people living with HIV and other civil society organizations regarding the letter sent to Venezuelans with HIV by the Global Fund.
Faced with the negative response from the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria, the Venezuellan Network of Positive People (RVG+), other civil society organizations working on HIV and Venezuelan citizens, requested the financial organization to send a¨special mission to Venezuela to verify on the ground the economic emergency situation and the health and food crisis¨ that the country is suffering.
The letter, which we fully publish hereafter and that also can be found in this link, explains in detail the social and economic situation that the Latin American country is going through and its impact on health and on the epidemic dynamics.
You can help by signing the petition: http://bit.ly/helpvihvenezuela
After 7 months waiting for a response, we consider the letter sent to Venezuelans with HIV by the Council President and the Executive Director of the Global Fund Norbert Hauser and Mark Dybul to be unacceptable, unjust and without humanity.
Venezuela, January 29, 2017
The Board of Directors of the Venezuelan Network of Positive People (RVG+), other Civil Society Organizations working on HIV, citizens from Venezuela undersigning this letter, facing the dramatic crisis of economic, health and food emergency that strikes our population especially more than 200 thousand people with HIv and AIDS, partners and their families, inform the national and international public opinion that on June 7, 2016, we sent a plea for humanitarian assistance to the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria (GF), but after seven (7) months, on January 20, 2017, we received their unfortunate and deplorable negative response, arguing that it was due to bureucratic reasons and administrative procedures.
Among other reasons, the Global Fund states that the OECD considers Venezuela as a high income country not eligible for international aid. Previously, the Global Fund used the World Bank rating, but that international body degraded it in the past from the high income category, now surprisingly enough they decided to use the OECD rating.
In previous years and with another management, the Global Fund and its Board, implemented flexible measures that were tailored and allowed exceptions to offer special or extraordinary aid to countries in crisis situation, such as the case of Russia where, regardless of their income rating and given the negative of the government of that country to recognize the severity of the problem, the Russian Civil Society received special grants, which allowed them to develop projects aimed at reducing the damage and preventing new HIV infections among injectable drug users.
The Global Fund itself made adaptations to its regulattions and rules so that other countries in crisis, such as Sierra Leone, Liberia, Guinea, Ukraine, Nepal, Haiti and Ecuador, among others, would receive support through fexible measures and extraordinary aid given the dramatic and difficult circumstances.
Only from the comfort of the city of Geneva, you can think that Venezuela being an oil country is submerged in abundance and wealth, which shows a total lack of knowledge of the Global Fund on the Venezuelan crisis that affects fundamental citizen rights of thousands and thousands of girls, boys, men and women with HIV and SIDA, from all ages, lesbians, gays, bisexuals, Trans , intersex people, heterosexuals, sex workers, that also suffer from other health conditions, such as every type of cancer, cardiovascular diseases, hemophilia, tuberculosis, malaria, diphtheria, diabetes, lupus, hypertension, among others. Most of these people are in poverty and hunger situation.
Hereafter we present some documents and public statements of the Venezuelan State institutions, of Civil Society Organizations and of international bodies that show the Venezuelan reality in the last years, of which both the Global Fund and the international community should be aware,
– The Presidency of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela decreed the State of Economic Exception and Emergency, recognizing the ¨price drop of the oil basket of up to 70%, which has directly affected the Nation´s income, causing a sensitive decrease of the financial availability that allows to meet the most urgent needs of the Venezuelan people¨. This decline in foreign exchange earnings to 5.291 milllion dollars, against 43.000 million usually obtained by the country on oil export. Recently, on January 13, 2017, this decree was approved and signed for the sixth time by the President of the Republic.
– The National Assembly in the exercise of its legislative function and in order to guarantee the provisions in the Constitution of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, approved the Special Law to tackle Humanitarian Crisis in Health, in reponse to ¨concerning events, related to the mortality rate due to diseases, to the lack of timely treatments, deterioration or lack of essencial medical equipment for health care, as well as the shortage of medications, both in hospitals and private health centers and businesses specialized in the pharmaceutical area…¨. It states that in Venezuela, 65% of medication included in the List of Essencial Medication, published by the World Health Organization, cannot be bought as it is not available, with a reality that almost 95% of this Essencial Medication is not available in the country. In addition, the hospital situation in the country is very precarious and many services have been interrupted, due to lack of medical supplies and insufficiency in basic services.
– The Venezuelan Society of Infectology (SVI), networks and NGOs that bring together people with HIV and doctors that provide care to HIV patients, stated in a public announcement that ¨During the last year the serious problems for antiretroviral treatment supply (ARV) have worsened with intermitent absence of atazanavir, raltegravir, ritonavir, nevirapina, efavirenz, rilpivirina, tenofovir, emtricitabina and abacavir, which jeopardize the life of HIV patients due to interruptions and non-scheduled changes in the therapeutical scheme¨. They mentioned the lack of treament for HIV considered as first line treatment by the international guidelines which prevents people with HIV to access the progress of science and medical technology globally available, to shortage of medication for oportunistic infections related to AIDS, of milk formulas for boys and girls with HIV and affected by HIV in their first year of life and reagents for dianosis tests, control and follow-up to HIV.
– The report on the situation of Access to Antiretroviral Medicines in Venezuela prepared by ACCSI, shows the violation to the right to live, to health and to have access to science and technology progress for girls, boys, adolescents youth, men and women with HIV and AIDS, as a result of deficiencies in the health public system in terms of treatments, care and prevention on HIV, and of the notorious and public disobedience of the Constitutional Madate of the Supreme Court of Justice, dated July 1999.
– UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon declared publicly; “I am very worried about the current situation, where basic needs can not be met , as food, water, health, clothing are not available. This creates a humanitarian crisis in Venezuela. This situation is due to political instability. And before anything, there has to be political stability. The UN is ready to help, but the global powers and the regional organizations are already committed.¨
– The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) urged the Venezuelan State ¨to take urgent public policy measures with an approach on human rights, considering the special conditions of people, groups and collectives in vulnerability situation, such as boys and girls, pregnant women, the elderly, and people with disabilities and chronic diseases, among others, and to meet the basic needs of the population to guarantee their rights to health and food in agreement with internationall standars.¨
– Two reports show the tragic situation on health rights suffered by millions of citizens with various diseases and affected by the health crisis. The reports were prepared by PROVEA and CODEVIDA and submitted to the UN Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights and to the Inter-American Court on Human Rights.
In this regard:
We invite the Global Fund to send a special mission delegation to Venezuela to verify ¨in situ¨ the situation of economic emergency and health and food crisis that we are facing, as other internationall organizations have already done so.
We urgently request the Board to reconsider the response given by the Council President and the Executive Director of the Global Fund, Norbert Hauser y Mark Dybul respectively.
We urge the UN agencies and other international aid organizations to urgently address Venezuela´s issues based on the needs of the people and not of the government institutions.
We demand the World Bank and the OECD to never more publish average data that leads to the false idea that Venezuela is a rich country.
We call the international civil society organizations working on health to stand by our call and speak out publicly to the Global Fund.
Finally, we demand the immediate resignation of the Chair of the Council and the Executive Director of the Global Fund, Norbert Hauser and Mark Dybul respectively, not only because of the negative response with bureaucratic excuses, but also because being the leaders of an institution that fights diseases they lack sensitivity and leadership to even try to look for some kind of response to a humanitarian, health and food crisis situation suffered by the Venezuelan people.
Yours Truly,
On behalf of the RVG+ Board of Directors, Venezuelan Network of Positive People Por Positive People
* Find the full list of signatures and the sources in this link.
All articles may be shared and published as long as the source data is quoted.