For Immediate Release

Washington, Friday April 25, 2009 – Six Latvian organizations of AIDS
fighters and people living with HIV have sent a representative to attend
the General Assembly of the International Monetary Fund, April 25-26 in
Washington, DC. They demand that Dominique Strauss-Kahn, Director of the
IMF, uphold his December 23, 2008 commitment to protect Latvian health and
social spending as part of the current IMF’s loan reimbursement plan.
Latvian government imports of lifesaving medications, such as HIV drugs
are currently under threat, as IMF loan recovery officers make a bid for
all of Latvia’s foreign currency income.

LATVIA’s HIV CRISIS
Latvia is the EU Member State with the second-highest prevalence of HIV,
after Estonia: 1% of adults are estimated to be living with the virus –
over 10 times the EU average. There are more then 4400 (194 on 100 000
inhabitants) HIV infected people in Latvia (but according to WHO dates –
10 000), but only 334 gets the access to treatment with antiretroviral
therapy. More then 400 patients in need of HIV treatment don’t have
access, and the number of people in need of HIV treatment is expected to
double across the next few months. The decision of Latvian government to
cut the health budget for 40% means to cut money for HIV/AIDS patient’s
medicine for 60% because there was already 20% decrease of expenses of ART
this year. That is mean stop ART for almost all HIV/AIDS patients. Latvia
also suffers from one of the fastest-growing epidemic in Europe. This
snowballing epidemic situation requires immediate all-out interventions,
starting with a 2-fold
increase in treatment delivery and 2-fold increase in prevention
services. Any cut to Latvia’s HIV fight budget would be literally deadly.
Full document please find at attachment in PDF and Word formats and copied
below.

Association HIV.LV
Board Chairman
19/8 Str. Gaismas,123, Kekava, Riga distr.
Latvia, LV-2123
-------------------------------

For Immediate Release – Saturday April 25

Washington, Friday April 25 2009 – Six Latvian organizations of AIDS
fighters and people living with HIV have sent a representative to attend
the General Assembly of the International Monetary Fund, April 25-26 in
Washington, DC. They demand that Dominique Strauss-Kahn, Director of the
IMF, uphold his December 23, 2008 commitment to protect Latvian health and
social spending as part of the current IMF’s loan reimbursement plan.
Latvian government imports of lifesaving medications, such as HIV drugs
are currently under threat, as IMF loan recovery officers make a bid for
all of Latvia’s foreign currency income.

LATVIA’s HIV CRISIS

Latvia is the EU Member State with the second-highest prevalence of HIV,
after Estonia: 1% of adults are estimated to be living with the virus –
over 10 times the EU average. There are more then 4400 (194 on 100 000
inhabitants) HIV infected people in Latvia (but according to WHO dates –
10 000), but only 334 gets the access to treatment with antiretroviral
therapy. More then 400 patients in need of HIV treatment don’t have
access, and the number of people in need of HIV treatment is expected to
double across the next few months. The decision of Latvian government to
cut the health budget for 40% means to cut money for HIV/AIDS patient’s
medicine for 60% because there was already 20% decrease of expenses of ART
this year. That is mean stop ART for almost all HIV/AIDS patients. Latvia
also suffers from one of the fastest-growing epidemic in Europe. This
snowballing epidemic situation requires immediate all-out interventions,
starting with a 2-fold increase in treatment delivery and 2-fold increase
in prevention services. Any cut to Latvia’s HIV fight budget would be
literally deadly.

LATVIA’s IMF NEED

Latvian banks are currently at risk of defaulting on debt owed to Nordic
and Western European banks. In 2006 and 2007, these foreign banks pushed
unprecedented amounts of loans upon Latvian banks and companies: for
several years, they lent the equivalent of 20% of Latvian’s GDP. Most of
this lending was focused on speculative real estate operations, and
resulted in an insane pricing bubble.

With the global burst of the stock and real estate bubbles in 2008, the EU
loans to Latvian banks have now become unreimburseable, even counting on
bank foreclosures on mortgaged real estate. Because of the sheer size of
the foreign loans, the Latvian government doesn’t have enough money alone
to bail out its defaulting banks. The Nordic and Western European banks
are now afraid that, if they don’t get reimbursed from Latvia, they in
turn might default on their own commitments. These EU banks have therefore
asked the IMF to lend to the Latvian government, so it can lend to Latvian
banks so they can meet the maturities they owe to EU banks.

IMF and Latvia
In an April 16 public statement[1], the Latvian Finance Minister revealed
that IMF has threatened to withdraw €1.7bn worth of ‘rescue loans’ from
Latvia unless the government increased the size of its budget cuts to 40%.
IMF is demanding guarantees that Latvia will make reimbursement of IMF the
priority use of its future foreign currency income. According to
information obtained by Latvian AIDS NGOs from official sources, the
Latvian budgets for importing HIV and other medications from abroad and
for maintaining healthcare delivery are now both under threat. Latvians
living with dangerous health conditions will die if these IMF threats come
to fruition.

These recent IMF threats come in direct reneging of the IMF Director’s
December 23, 2008 pledge
(see www.imf.org/external/np/sec/pr/2008/pr08345.htm) that “Latvian social
spending will be protected” and that it will even “increase by 1.5%
percent of GDP between 2008 and 2009”.

Latvian activists call upon IMF Director Dominique Strauss-Kahn to uphold
his December 2008 commitment to protect Latvian health and social budgets
from IMF cuts, and to intervene personally to ensure that Latvians living
with HIV or other healthcare needs may access lifesaving services in spite
of IMF-mandated budget cuts.

Association HIV.LV:
Fenikss SI, Sun Island, Conscience Ecology, AGIHAS (PLWHA), Family Crisis
Centre «Milgravis» and Youth against AIDS

For contact: Inga Paparde, Association HIV.LV
+371 29420692
This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it
www.apvienibahiv.lv

[1] April 16 statement by Latvian Finance Minister Repse : see April 17
AFP wire story titled ‘Latvia struggling to meet terms of bailout’