Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) announces the closure of the HIV/AIDS treatment projects in Transnistria, a breakaway region of Moldova unrecognized by the international community. MSF has now handed over the HIV/AIDS program in Transnistrian prisons to local counterparts and the Ministry of Health, after already handing over activities from the civil sector in December 2008. The projects were deemed a success after MSF established quality HIV/AIDS medical care for the population, following strong advocacy that international health resources allocated for Moldova also reach Transnistria.

“MSF was the first international aid organization to directly assist people living with HIV/AIDS in this politically-isolated region. Our presence has demonstrated to local and international stakeholders that it is possible to work in Transnistria and provide aid to the most vulnerable regions,” said MSF’s head of mission for the project, Mark Walsh.

MSF set up the program in 2007 to address the urgent needs of the Transnistrian HIV population, which has nearly 30 per cent of the HIV in Moldova but is only one-eighth of the total population. MSF enrolled more than 860 patients into the treatment program, more than half of all registered people living with HIV\AIDS in the region. More than 180 of the patients are now receiving antiretroviral medicines, as their health conditions require it.

 A predominantly Russian-speaking strip of land separated from Moldova by the river Niester and once the scene of a violent separatist war, Transnistria is one of the unresolved post-Soviet