Provision of care for people with HIV migrating from Ukraine: preparing for a long-term response

Abstract

Russia's invasion and war in Ukraine have caused a major humanitarian crisis among Ukrainian citizens, but also specifically affected diagnosis and provision of HIV care. As Ukraine remains the country with the second highest (after Russia) HIV incidence in Europe, the forced migration resulting from the war has required urgent and targeted responses to allow for uninterrupted access to medical care and antiretroviral drug supply in neighboring countries and beyond. Response and integration of people with HIV (PWH) has been swift across European countries, but several challenges remain. Key challenges relate to the expansion of unstigmatized HIV testing to tackle late diagnoses, development of legal frameworks allowing for access to medication not registered or under patent protection in other European countries, diagnosis and treatment of key comorbidities including tuberculosis (TB) and hepatitis C virus (HCV), vaccination programs, and continued surveillance for drug resistance and changes in molecular epidemiology.

Fig. 1

Map of selected countries with overview of overall war-related displacement from Ukraine, total number of people with HIV entering care since outbreak of war, proportion of migrants in care and female to male ratio.