Metropolitan Soroka donates $20,000 to CCRF for HIV testing center in Lviv (07/18/04)

Metropolitan Soroka donates $20,000 to CCRF for HIV testing center in Lviv

SHORT HILLS, N.J. - Metropolitan Archbishop Stefan Soroka of the Ukrainian Catholic Archeparchy of Philadelphia presented a check to the Children of Chornobyl Relief Fund (CCRF) in the amount of $20,000 to develop an HIV testing center in Lviv. Together with a grant from the Ukrainian Medical Association of North America (UMANA) and CCRF, this donation will go toward a program to diagnose HIV infections in pregnant women in order to prevent the transmission of the virus from mother to child. In cases where children have already contracted HIV, the center will treat the children by providing anti-retroviral medications that have proven extremely effective in eliminating all traces of the virus in newborns.

Dr. Zenon Matkiwsky, president of CCRF, and Alexander Kuzma, executive director of CCRF, were present at the meeting. "We are very proud of the new metropolitan of the Ukrainian Catholic Church for having the vision to act in combating the HIV crisis affecting Ukraine today," said Dr. Matkiwsky. "Through the church's involvement, this program will have a powerful impact in raising public awareness of the dangers of this infectious disease."

UMANA's former president Dr. Ihor Voyevidka initiated a meeting with Dr. Matkiwsky during which they discussed the severity of the health crisis in Ukraine, specifically the AIDS epidemic in Ukraine that, according to the latest findings by the World Health Organization, has one of the fastest-growing rates of HIV in Europe. Following this meeting, the UMANA Board approved a seed grant of $10,000 at its summit in May 2003 to begin the process of developing an AIDS testing facility in Lviv.

The first phase of the program was to provide physician training at the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey (UMDNJ). Under the tutelage of Thomas Denny, a member of CCRF's board of directors and the principal investigator of the Division of AIDS Immunology Quality Assessment Program at UMDNJ, Dr. Olena Baran from the Lviv Perinatal Center underwent an intensive four-week training program to implement proper PCR testing techniques.

Dr. Baran, director of the Infectious Disease Testing Laboratory, worked closely with Mr. Denny and his associates, Dr. Dan Lewis, the head of molecular virology at UMDNJ, and Dr. Richard Stevens, head of the Serology Lab at UMDNJ.

For the next phase of this project, Dr. Lewis will travel to Ukraine to supervise the installation of the AIDS testing equipment and to provide the final assessment of the Lviv PCR lab.

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