Viktorija Markova, from Vilnius, contracted HIV from a man she loved. The disease did not destroy her life, however. The woman takes medication and feels strong enough to lead a relatively normal life – she has even given birth to a healthy boy.
However, visits to doctors are a stressful task for the HIV-positive couple. Viktorija says that her husband is particularly reluctant to turn to physicians because his medical file bears a note, in big fat letter, “HIV”. Dentists often refuse to receive him, even when he needs it badly, and people who learn about his condition strive to keep their distance, as if HIV could be passed by touching or breathing the same air.
According to official data, there are 2,097 HIV-positive people in Lithuania. A reporter of 15min has called up several medical centres to see the reaction when physicians are asked to treat a patient with HIV.
Some refuse
State-run medical institutions are not allowed to turn away patients, admits chief of odontology at a Vilnius outpatient clinic. When I tell her that I have HIV and admit that I sometimes shy away from disclosing my condition to doctors for fear of being rejected, she assures me that I will be received. She only asks me to warn doctors and inquires which stage of HIV I have (in some stages, the disease is more communicable than in others).
“We do not have the right to refuse... After all, you are a human being, too,” the chief of odontology comforts me.
Private institutions operate differently – they can refuse to serve patients. When I ring up a private clinic, about a toothache, the administrator reacts quite naturally – she advises I call a surgeon and gives her phone number. The administrator informs me that all patients are required to fill out a form and indicate if they are HIV-positive or not. In that case, a dentist simply wears an extra pair of gloves.
A secretary at another clinic sounds a little taken aback by my revelation. After I calm her down, saying my condition is not dangerous, she agrees to give me an appointment with a dentist.
An employee at another private odontology clinic tells me twice I am unwelcome. “We would not receive you, because we... Need special... Special equipment,” the woman says extremely cautiously and suggests I go to hospital.
Access to healthcare
Judging by dry statistics alone, HIV in Lithuania is less widespread than in the rest of Europe. According to data from April, there are 192 people in the country with AIDS and 2,097 with HIV. The average age of the infected is a little over 30.
Over the first quarter of this year, Lithuania recorded 37 new HIV cases. 14 people contracted the virus through intravenous injections, 11 via unprotected heterosexual relations, and 4 via unprotected homosexual relations. The rest did not know how they got the disease.
Irma Čaplinskienė, head of STD and hepatitis unit at the Centre of Communicable Disease and AIDS, believes that so many HIV cases without known origins mean that doctors do not engage with their patients enough to learn where they could have contracted the virus.
“It is a bad thing, since an HIV patient is not properly advised on how to avoid repeated exposure, infecting others, how to take on responsibility for preventing the spread of the virus,” Čaplinskienė says.
Loreta Stonienė, who works for the association of women with HIV/AIDS and their relatives Demetra, says that most infected people never find their way to a doctor, even though free HIV testing is available not just in Vilnius, but also in Kaunas, Biržai, Kėdainiai, Šiauliai, Panevėžys, Vilkaviškis, Alytus, and Visaginas. Vilnius also has a self-help group for HIV-positive people.
Medication works
Doctor Raimonda Matulionytė, who works with infectious diseases, says that HIV is usually transmitted in the acute stage of the virus, when the carrier might not know he or she is infected.
Three weeks after contracting HIV, the person develops acute retroviral syndrome that can last 2-3 weeks. One can mistake it for an ordinary flu and not learn the true diagnosis until several years later. If left untreated, HIV develops into AIDS within nine years or less and ends in death.
People with HIV usually have check-ups every three months in order to determine when they have to start taking medication that prevents communicating the virus to others. Once on medication, patients must take it for the rest of their lives.
In Lithuania, HIV-positive patients are guaranteed free healthcare.
HIV in blood donors
According to the Centre for Communicable Diseases and AIDS, each year up to several dozen blood donors are discovered to have HIV. Some of them are active donors – people who give blood repeatedly.
According to preliminary estimates, 29 blood donors were diagnosed with HIV in 2012, twice more than the year before. In 2010, there were 24 HIV-positive donors, and as many as 42 in 2009. The problem is that the virus is undetectable in the first several weeks after infection.
Doctor Kęstutis Speičys of the National Blood Centre says that HIV has been diagnosed to one blood donor in Vilnius this year. He adds, however, there is no reason for panic, since the man donated blood awhile ago.
Last autumn, a story hit headlines about a many-time blood donor from Klaipėda who was diagnosed with HIV. The woman had donated blood just a few months prior and it was given to several patients. The Ministry of Healthcare set up a special commission which found that the donor contracted HIV after her last donation.
In Lithuania, there have been so far no documented cases of people getting HIV through blood transfusion. One such case has recently shocked Russia – a 16-month-old girl was given HIV-positive blood in a hospital in Saint Petersburg.
A similar case happened in Austria this February, when a female patient was transfused infected blood. It is believed that the doctors failed to detect HIV because it was in latency.
142 dead
Lithuania started keeping record of HIV patients in 1988. Since then, 142 people died from AIDS-related diseases.
Last year, 28 people with AIDS passed away, more by ten than the year before. According to the Centre of Communicable Diseases and AIDS, the disease has been on the rise lately.
Authorities estimate that treatment for one HIV-positive patient costs on average 25.5 thousand litas (7.4 thousand euros) per year. It is a life-long treatment.
The European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control reports a decline in AIDS cases and AIDS-related deaths in many countries. In 2011, AIDS claimed 1,322 lives in the European Union, or almost 1,000 fewer than five years ago.
