Can expect HIV infection

The day before yesterday, December 1, was remembered as the world day of memory of those who have perished from AIDS, the day when the first infected perished and a day to organize a March of Life and once again say what must be done in the future. 25 million HIV infected individuals have already died the world over, and scientists analyzing the dynamic of the epidemic say that humanity is undergoing only the initial stages of the infection, with the culmination to be around 2020 when 65 million will be infected.

According to the latest statistics, Ukraine now has 49,177 HIV infected persons and 3705 afflicted with AIDS. 2006 have died. Most of those infected are under age 30, and if we believe the sociologists among those aged three to eight are half a million awaiting this plague. Of course, in the West there are already antiretrovirual medicines, palliatives, and alternative therapies.

In Ukraine only 20 infected persons can be helped by the antiretrovirus therapies. The chairman of the All-Ukrainian Network of Persons Living with HIV/AIDS Volodymyr Zhovtiak believes that the state’s first responsibility is to find the financial wherewithal to supply all those officially registered with medicine. In his view the government must begin talks with foreign pharmaceutical firms that produce generic drugs. For example, India offers medicines that would cost the state $360 a year for each infected person, but at his writing, the 2003 budget item on HIV and tuberculosis sufferers provides only a paltry 87.7 million hryvnias with 15,480,000 earmarked only to provide HIV/AIDS victims with the least expensive Indian medicines. Additional preventive measures, testing, hospital stays — not to mention measures against TB — obviously fade into the realm of fantasy.