AEGiS-Reuters: AIDS Epidemic Threatens Ukraine , Experts Say

Important note: Information in this article was accurate in 2000. The state of the art may have changed since the publication date.

AIDS Epidemic Threatens Ukraine , Experts Say

Reuters NewMedia - Friday December 1, 2000
Olena Horodetska

KIEV (Reuters) - The AIDS virus is spreading faster through Ukraine than anywhere else in Europe, and an epidemic could sweep through the country uncontrolled unless public awareness is raised, officials warned on Friday. Poverty, unemployment, ignorance and access to cheap drugs have coalesced into a dramatic threat, the scale of which is hidden by official statistics.

"Ukraine is threatened with an HIV/AIDS epidemic," said health minister Vitaly Moskalenko at a news conference to mark World AIDS day. "The growth in the number of cases is very dangerous."

Official figures record about 35,500 cases of HIV infection in Ukraine. But First Deputy Health Minister Olha Bobyleva said the real figure may be more than 10 times as high.

The United Nations estimates about six percent of Ukraine's adult population may be affected by 2010.

U.S. Ambassador Carlos Pascual said Ukraine has the fastest-growing rate of HIV infection in Europe.

Moskalenko said nearly two-thirds of Ukrainians infected with HIV/AIDS picked up the virus through dirty syringes and needles. The southern coastal regions of Odessa, Sevastopol, Mykolayiv and Crimea were the worst affected.

At present Ukraine has no government program to combat AIDS but Moskalenko said it was working on a strategy.

The European Union and the United States said they would chip in $4 million to open a national information center on preventing HIV/AIDS and help Ukraine raise AIDS awareness among young people.

Gregory Jedrzejczak, the World Bank's resident representative in Kiev, said the bank was working on a new AIDS and TB control project.

"We hope a mission which comes in December will agree with the government on a loan and we will be able to start concrete work next year," Jedrzejczak said.
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