KIEV, Jan 28 2015 (IPS) - With international organisations warning that East Ukraine is on the brink of a humanitarian catastrophe as its health system collapses, marginalised groups are among those facing the greatest struggle to access even basic health care in the war-torn region.

The Eastern Europe and Central Asia is home to the world’s only growing HIV/AIDS epidemic and is the single most-affected region by the spread of multidrug-resistant TB.

Ukraine has one of the worst TB problems in Europe, second only to Russia in terms of infection numbers. It is one of 27 high MDR-TB burden countries in the world.

TB is a major health threat in Russia, where it is the leading infectious disease killer. The country has the highest rates of MDR-TB and XDR-TB in Europe and the third highest in the world. It also has the 11th highest burden of all TB in the world.