Live and Let Live

HIV-infected Individuals Unite to Fight for the Lives of Their Fellows

“I am infected with HIV for 6 years already and this of course does not make me happy… but I just can’t lay down and die. Life is still beautiful,” David Ananiashvili, head of a non-governmental organization “Positive Group of Georgia” told Civil Georgia. David was infected with HIV when he was drug addict.

David created “Positive Group of Georgia” exactly one year ago to fight AIDS and united many other HIV infected people around it. December 1, the World AIDS Day, is always a special day for David. He strongly believes that the mankind will able to defeat this plague.

First HIV-positive person was registered in Georgia in 1989. AIDS Center of Georgia reports that already 52 people have died of this disease in the country since that year.

According to the 2002 report of the UNAIDS more substantial spread of HIV is now evident in Georgia.

Today there are already 361 officially registered HIV-positive individuals, of which 313 are male. 70% of registered persons have been infected while using drugs. 29% – through sexual intercourse, 0,5% have inherited the virus from the parents. Only 3 patients were infected by blood transfusion.

These are the official figures, but determining the exact numbers is difficult. “If we follow the estimations of the World Health Organization, there must be around 10 000 infected people in Georgia. But according to our AIDS Center surveys, this figure should not be higher than 1500” – Keti Stvilia, doctor at the AIDS Center, told Civil Georgia.

Some other non-governmental organizations believe that there are around four or five thousand HIV-positive individuals.

“Results of our calculations are alarming. But more alarming is that we are not receiving sufficient funding from the state to deal with this problem,” says David Aniashvili.

Keti Stvilia says that 30 patients need very expensive treatment, but since the government has allocated only 400,000 Laris (approximately USD 190,000), only 6 of them are receiving this treatment.

“We can not spend all the money for treatment. Dissemination and public information work is also very important. The government has been promising increase of funding, but never did so,” Stvilia says.

The Georgian government has expressed its will to fight AIDS by signing up to the various international and national programs. However, due to economic hardship and continuous budgetary crisis it was unable to finance anti-AIDS programs.

“We are fortunate that USAID, UNICEF and some other international organizations are helping us in the framework of “safe blood” program. Otherwise situation would have been just disastrous,” says Tamar Lobjanidze, deputy head of Public Health Division of the Ministry of Heath. Lobjanidze is very concerned with the fact, that anti-AIDS programs, which cover almost every aspect of the problem, probably would never get implemented.

Patients are left on their own. Each one of them needs nearly USD12,000 per year for treatment, which is not affordable to the most. David Aniashvili is receiving help from his Italian friends. He goes to Italy for treatment twice a year.

This year’s slogan of anti-AIDS organizations is “Live and Let Live”. Georgians follow it thoroughly. Facts of discrimination of AIDS patients have never been reported in Georgia. But, Ananiashvili says that despite society’s tolerance, the government keeps neglecting the problem of AIDS in the country.

By Goga Chanadiri, Civil Georgia