Tenders have failed to go ahead, and no drugs have been procured

The country has failed to procure drugs for the treatment of antibiotic-resistant forms of tuberculosis this year, according to activists from patient organizations. Isoniazid, the main drug used to treat the disease, has not been procured so far as well. Meanwhile, Ukraine ranks second among European nations by number of highly drug-resistant tuberculosis patients, so the drugs situation can trigger further spread of the disease.

There is a plan to meet the need for drugs through an additional purchase by the Ukrainian branch of the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis, and Malaria. Its grant will amount to 460,000 dollars, and the drugs should reach patients by January-February 2015. The activists hope that 2015 will see public tenders held on time, and Ukraine will be able to provide drugs on its own to patients starting in March.

“The Global Fund will buy drugs for its program, which will be launched in January and last for three years,” spokesman of the World Health Organization (WHO) Andrii Slavutsky said. “The fund deals usually only with new cases of highly drug-resistant tuberculosis, all other cases are expected to be treated at the expense of the state. Due to the troubled tender situation, the Ministry of Health asked the Global Fund to procure drugs for different groups of patients, and the organization has agreed.”

According to Slavutsky, most regions of Ukraine have reserves of drugs that will last for one or two months only. Tuberculosis treatment must be neither interrupted nor limited, because doing otherwise means provoking build-up of drug resistance. Therefore, the problem with drugs procurement should be resolved in advance.

The healthcare community expects from the Ministry of Health radical reforms in the public procurement and patient care systems. In particular, Slavutsky believes that tuberculosis patients should be treated as outpatients, without hospitalization. “In Ukraine, outpatient treatment of tuberculosis is now used only in certain regions. The WHO promotes this experience,” Slavutsky noted. “With new diagnostic methods that are used in Ukraine, doctors can reduce the period of contagiousness of patients to as little as two to three weeks and allow them to be treated at home. Meanwhile, tuberculosis patients are being unnecessarily turned into disabled people. Following hospitalization, they lose their jobs and have to live off welfare payments.”