HIV/AIDS in Ukraine: the sobering facts

In the United States, Human Immuno-deficiency Virus (HIV) was identified in 1984 as the infectious cause of AIDS, the Acquired Immuno-Deficiency Syndrome. In Ukraine, HIV/AIDS was first identified in 1994. However, over the last several years, reported cases of HIV infection in Ukraine have increased 200 percent.

In 2002 up to 400,000 persons were estimated to be living with HIV/AIDS in Ukraine, according to the publication "Join the Fight Against AIDS," released in June 2002 by the United Nations Program on HIV/AIDS (known as UNAIDS).

Regional HIV/AIDS statistics and features reported by UNAIDS at the end of 2001 indicated that the economic and political impact of AIDS affects all countries, and disproportionately, many developing countries. More than 95 percent of the new HIV infections in 2001 were estimated to occur in developing countries: almost 50 percent of there are women, and about 50 percent are between the ages of 15 and 24.

Despite abundant information on its pattern of transmission and advances in diagnosis and treatment of HIV/AIDS, UNAIDS reports that many persons do not know they carry the virus and many millions more know too little about the virus to protect themselves against it.

AIDS continues to be a serious disease that has an insidious onset, is difficult to treat and is ultimately fatal. AIDS is estimated to develop in over 90 percent of HIV infected persons who do not receive anti-HIV treatment. However, both HIV infection and AIDS are preventable.

In June 2001, President Leonid Kuchma declared 2002 as "The year of the fight against AIDS."

- Maria Hrycelak, M.D.

Copyright © The Ukrainian Weekly, April 6, 2003, No. 14, Vol. LXXI

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