LETTERS TO THE EDITOR (04/28/02)

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

Kuzma's commentary is a timely appeal

Dear Editor:

The recent article "The new face of AIDS in Ukraine" by Alexander B. Kuzma (April 7) is an extremely well written, accurate and timely appeal to our Ukrainian American community to recognize and deal with the exploding AIDS epidemic in Ukraine.

As noted by Mr. Kuzma, close to 1 percent of Ukraine's population is infected with HIV, the virus that eventually results in AIDS. This greatly exceeds the HIV incidence in the U.S. and, if unchecked, could affect 40 percent of the Ukrainian population in the next 50 years. The misery, suffering and political-economic devastation that this would create are unfathomable.

As pointed out in the article, heterosexual spread of the virus, as well as vertical transmission from infected pregnant women to their newborn infants are accounting for an ever-increasing proportion of AIDS patients in Ukraine and elsewhere, and the disease can no longer be viewed as an affliction visited solely upon homosexual males, prostitutes and intravenous drug abusers. Transmission through improperly screened blood transfusions also is rising in Ukraine.

The breakdown of societal structures and mores, as well as the economic hardships affecting a large segment of the Ukrainian population, the attendant rise in narco-trafficking, prostitution and other criminal activity are important factors underlying the current epidemic. So is the unwillingness of many people in Ukraine to recognize the threat of HIV or to take personal responsibility to protect themselves from infection. However, before we jump on the bandwagon of dismissing the Ukrainians for their "moral deficiencies," we must realize that there is only one small difference between us and them: we (our parents) got on the boat to freedom - they didn't! Let's not place ourselves above our people; instead, let's look what we can do together to conquer this epidemic.

The incidence of HIV can be decreased by educating the population, especially the young, about obvious high risk factors - IV drug use, promiscuity, unprotected sex. Medically, the transmission of the virus can be dramatically decreased (80 to 90 percent) by treating pregnant, HIV-infected women with nevirapine and other antiretrovirals. The risk of transmitting HIV through blood transfusion can be dramatically decreased through relatively simple measures such as: eliminating donations from paid donors; carefully interviewing potential donors about possible drug use, high risk sexual behaviors, hepatitis and other disqualifying factors; instituting widely available and relatively inexpensive serologic tests to identify infected units of donated blood. In the United States such measures have decreased the risk of transmitting HIV through blood transfusions from up to one in 100 in 1982, to only one in 500,000 today.

Various international health and humanitarian groups, as well as governmental and non-governmental organizations in the U.S. and Ukraine, increasingly are recognizing the gravity of the AIDS epidemic, and are taking positive steps to control its spread. Clearly all deserve our moral, political, and financial support. It is heartening to see that the Children of Chornobyl Relief Fund which continues its outstanding humanitarian work in Ukraine, is turning its attention, and resources, to combatting this illness.

The war against AIDS, whether in Ukraine, here or anywhere in the world, is definitely winnable. The tools and methodologies are available. New, more effective drug combinations are being discovered; work toward an effective HIV vaccine is progressing.

As a member of the Ukrainian American medical community I call upon all my colleagues and friends to join in the effort to eradicate this illness from our midsts.

Askold D. Mosijczuk, M.D.
Silver Spring, Md.

Fedynsky's column provocative, welcomed

Dear Editor:

Andrew Fedynsky's recent column about Shevchenko, Gogol and the Ukrainian language was provocative and very much welcomed. I especially appreciated his encouraging Ukrainians to read Gogol who was, after all, Ukrainian - despite having written his superb literature in the Russian language.

Of course Shevchenko was heroic in using Ukrainian as his medium, but we shouldn't ignore or despise Gogol simply because he wrote in Russian (i.e., "bad Russian," according to the critics of his day). Rather, Ukrainians everywhere should reclaim and embrace him as truly one of our own literary heroes, and appreciate that his having been a Ukrainian was an essential part of his highly original genius.

As a fiction writer who also writes about Ukrainians in a non-Ukrainian language, I like to think that a major part of my soul is Ukrainian nevertheless, and I like to believe the same could be said of Gogol. I arrived at that conclusion after reading Prof. George S.N. Luckyj's excellent book, "The Anguish of Mykola Hohol, a.k.a. Nikolai Gogol." I also found evidence of Gogol's Ukrainian soul in his very own - as Mr. Fedynsky accurately stated - "magnificent works."

Irene Zabytko
Apopka, Fla.

Interesting parallels on linguistic attitudes

Dear Editor:

While I enjoy Andrew Fedynsky's column in general, the March 24 article "Shevchenko, Gogol and the Ukrainian language" came as especially rewarding. Since language is fundamental to the future course of Ukrainian civilization, care must be taken when writing on current developments, as well as on historical phenomena.

Bringing together Shevchenko, Hohol and Scherbytsky in historical perspective, Mr. Fedynsky has shown much refreshing insight. His parallels on linguistic attitudes in Ukraine, Russia and America are quite original.

It's been said Russian has been programmed through the centuries into the minds and tongues of people in central and eastern Ukraine. By the same token, a person of Ukrainian descent living alone in Pittsburgh most of his/her life will, in all likelihood become just as programmed by the sound of English. Result: estrangement, little better to that of some Ukrainians in Kyiv, Poltava or Odesa.

No wonder Scherbytsky said "People speak whatever's easiest for them."

I really agree with Mr. Fedynsky that it's astonishing how Ukrainian has survived in the diaspora, even into the second and third generations. The secret is collective commitment: when there's a will, there's a way.

Roman Sawycky
Cranford, N.J.

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