Ukraine confronts growing AIDS problem (07/15/01)

Ukraine confronts growing AIDS problem

by Maryna Makhnonos
Special to The Ukrainian Weekly

KYIV - Ukraine suffers from a poor medical infrastructure and weak laboratory capacities in battling AIDS problems, a representative of Doctors Without Borders, Joost van der Meer, said on July 4.

"In general, access to medicines is very poor," Dr. van der Meer said at a news conference in Kyiv. He said simple medicines, much less specialized drugs, are insufficient or unaffordable.

"I'm talking about very simple basic medicines," he explained.

Dr. van der Meer, who heads the Ukraine mission of Doctors Without Borders said the situation in Ukraine's southern regions is especially bad and that in some cases there are no antibiotics available for infants in case they have pneumonia.

He also claimed there is weak media support for a socially oriented project aimed at improving people's attitudes to HIV/AIDS victims, which includes a video promoting positive attitudes toward HIV-infected persons.

Dr. van der Meer told journalists that battling AIDS in Ukraine is easier to some extent due to a "clear commitment from the government."

"The fact that the Ukrainian government is open is already saving lives," he said, adding that the country's large number of highly educated people also is a good basis for providing quality care.

According to the United Nations, by 2000, the HIV virus had affected 36.1 million people worldwide, most of whom live on the African continent. Currently, some 14,000 people throughout the world are infected with HIV daily, or four people every minute, he said.

Ukraine is considered to have the highest transmission rate of the HIV virus in Europe, the Holos Ukrainy daily reported. Previously, AIDS spread in Ukraine was usually blamed on dirty syringes used by drug addicts, but today according to health officials, the disease is being spread through heterosexual contacts and from mothers to their newborns, according to health officials.

Ukraine's government on July 11 adopted a program for 2001-2003 to prevent and combat the spread of HIV/AIDS; it plans to spend 351 million hrv (about $65 million U.S.) for the program.

The inter-sector program is composed of five special stages, Health Minister Vitalii Moskalenko said, according to the Interfax news agency. Sixteen government departments, including four from the Academy of Sciences, will participate in the program.

Mr. Moskalenko admitted that Ukraine is one of the leading states in Europe in terms of the rate of HIV's spread, calling the situation "threatening."

In addition, the presidential office is preparing a decree to battle the spread of AIDS in Ukraine in accordance with last month's United Nations declaration to combat AIDS.

Ukraine's government is considering the creation in Ukraine of a special Eastern European center for battling HIV/AIDS, Mr. Moskalenko added.

As of June 1, a total of 39,127 Ukrainians - including more than 2,331 children - were officially registered as HIV-infected since the epidemic started in 1987, said Olha Kravchenko, a scientist affiliated with Ukraine's Center for AIDS Prevention and Treatment.

Of those, 71 children fell ill with AIDS, and 1,106 adults and 50 children died of the illness, she said.

The actual number of victims in Ukraine is estimated to have risen from 110,000 in 1997 to 240,000 in 1999, according to the United Nations.

In June Ukraine initiated the special U.N. session on HIV/AIDS, during which 189 countries adopted a declaration delineating an international strategy to battle the century's deadliest plague. The declaration urged governments to implement measures to decrease the number of HIV-infected people by 25 percent by 2010, and to create a special fund to raise from $7 billion to $10 billion annually for HIV/AIDS prevention.

| Home Page |