Alliance Ukraine and the Pharmacia network have been promoting a pilot harm reduction project in state-owned pharmacies to mark International AIDS Candlelight Memorial Day. On 20 May 2007, volunteers publicised project events in all of the pharmacy's Kyiv outlets, handing out information on HIV prevention and providing consultations on HIV-related issues.

Ten state-owned pharmacies in Kyiv now provide on-the-spot consultations on HIV and sexually transmitted infection prevention. Each of the pharmacies has a stand with prevention information. Any registered harm reduction project client can receive a free package for safer drug use within 12 hours, which includes three syringes, three disinfectant tissues and one condom.

Once the Alliance has resolved issues related to the disposal of used syringes with the Sanitary and Epidemiological Station, a component on syringe exchange is to be added to the packages for safer drug use.

The Ukrainian drugs scene is changing rapidly. More people are now taking a combination of pharmaceutical medicines. This is why cooperating with pharmacies in raising HIV prevention coverage is so important.

Tetyna Deshko, from Alliance Ukraine, says: "The targets set for our HIV prevention programmes are extremely ambitious and the Alliance is searching for innovative ways to raise coverage in vulnerable groups."

The initiative to place harm reduction programme outlets in pharmacies was presented by Alliance Ukraine and other partnering non-governmental organisations to the Kyiv City Coordination Council on HIV/AIDS in January. The Council went on to support the initiative.

Close to the project launch date, the Alliance told Kyiv police stations about the project and asked for their support. Then in February more than 100 clients arrived at the pharmacies for the first time to receive their packages for safer drug use. Other injecting drug users not registered in harm reduction programmes were referred to the city's other prevention projects for injecting drug users.

The pharmacists have been trained to provide consultations on prevention of HIV and other sexually transmitted infections by the Program for Appropriate Technology in Health (PATH) as part of the USAID-supported project Scaling up the National Response to HIV/AIDS through Information and Services (SUNRISE).

There are an estimated 38,000 injecting drug users in Kyiv. Researchers say that this is one of the groups most vulnerable to HIV in Ukraine. HIV prevention programmes in Kyiv have reached about a third of injecting drug users so far. Alliance Ukraine needs to double this figure by the time the Global Fund-supported programme Overcoming the HIV/AIDS Epidemic in Ukraine ends in 2008.