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U.S. URGES INTERNATIONAL ORGANIZATIONS, LOCAL AUTHORITIES TO BOOST EFFORTS TO COMBAT HIV-AIDS IN UKRAINE

Associated Press Online, Kiev, Ukraine, Mar 23, 2004

KIEV - U.S. officials urged international organizations and Ukraine's authorities on Tuesday to increase efforts to stem one of the world's fastest growing HIV infection rates.

The call for more action came as the International HIV/AIDS Alliance reported on the results of a just completed three year U.S.-funded project in this ex-Soviet republic. The British based organization has worked with 30,000 HIV infected people, Ukraine director Andriy Klepikov said.

"Much has been started, but much more needs to be done," said Christopher Crowley, who heads the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), that funded the US$4.3 million project.

Ukraine, along with Russia, is at the epicenter of concern over AIDS in Eastern Europe, where the United Nations says HIV infection rates are growing faster than Africa and threaten to stunt economic development.

An AIDS symbol made from balloons is released into the skies by the Independence column in downtown Kiev
(AFP/File/Sergei Supinsky)

UNAIDS, the United Nations anti-AIDS division, estimates that the number of Ukrainians infected has grown almost 50 percent in the past three years.

U.S. Ambassador John Herbst, stressing the seriousness of the epidemic in Ukraine, warned that in time it could reach "an irreversible level."

Officially, some 68,000 people are registered as HIV-positive in Ukraine, but experts estimate 500,000 people, more than 1 percent of the population, are infected. (am/an/mb)

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