Svitlana, 35, a Kramatorsk resident, discovered that she was HIV-positive in 2007. She opted out of treatment and subsequently avoided doctors, accepting the infectious disease as her fate.

She continued to work at three different jobs to make ends meet and concentrated on caring for her elderly parents. In March 2020, her health began to deteriorate. By the end of April, she had lost 20 kilograms and become so weak that she could not get out of bed.

Svitlana’s father took her to a doctor in Kramatorsk. For the next 10 days, she underwent numerous consultations and examinations. Doctors suspected that she had contracted tuberculosis (TB), but could not find conclusive proof. There was no diagnosis. 

Then, thanks to USAID support, a new type of TB test became available in May 2020. Doctors ordered this new flow urine lipoarabinomannan assay (LF-LAM) for Svitlana, and diagnosed her with TB within two hours. She was immediately put on treatment. Within a week her health improved. After the shock of what she had just endured, Svitlana also finally agreed to get help for her HIV/AIDs condition, and began antiretroviral therapy. 

The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, TB, and Malaria first piloted the new LF-LAM tests in 2019 in two towns, Sloviansk and Mariupol. USAID’s activity, “Support TB Control Efforts in Ukraine,” recently made LF-LAM testing available nationwide as a part of its mission to help patients infected with both TB and HIV across Ukraine.

Three weeks after she was admitted to the hospital, Svitlana could walk again. The threat to her life had passed and in June she left the hospital to continue her treatment at home. 

Thanks to the professional excellence of her Ukrainian doctors, and the new tools that they gained from USAID, Svitlana has allowed her life to take on new meaning. She came to understand that HIV is not a death sentence.