From now on business will join in the struggle against the AIDS epidemic in Ukraine. The emergence of a coalition of leading Ukrainian companies has become a response of sorts to Ukraine’s president, who recently told a convention of family physicians in Kharkiv that representatives of business circles must join the prevention campaign. Actually this will serve their interests. Eighty percent of Ukrainians infected with HIV are between the ages of 20 and 39. If this virus continues to affect the most productive strata, the labor market may experience essential changes leading to losses for companies. For example, a study carried out by the Ministry of Labor and Social Policy shows that by 2014 the index of employed people will be down by 9 percent, and this is an optimistic forecast. According to the study, nine years from now there will be 470,000 HIV-infected people in Ukraine. The GDP will drop by 0.66 percent and budget income items will lack 537 million hryvnias. Deputy Minister of Labor and Social Policy Volodymyr Tiotkin says the latter is explained by the fact that the ranks of taxpayers will become thinner.
There is also a pessimistic forecast. If it is to be believed, 820,000 Ukrainians will be infected by HIV by 2014. Budget income items will be reduced by 930 million hryvnias and disbursements will increase by 2.6 million. There seems no way to avoid losses. Special programs and medications for people infected with HIV are primarily the responsibility of the state; an annual course of antiretroviral therapy costs 10,000 dollars per patient.
Tiotkin stressed that Ukraine may well be confronted by all these problems if the negative trend is not stopped today. So far the chances for success are slim. A report by Transatlantic Partners against AIDS shows that this country has not learned to combat the epidemic and protect its victims’ rights. Thus, a mere 15 percent of injection drug users have access to prevention programs, and 98 percent of Ukrainians have no idea that there are such things as free consultations and AIDS tests. There are practically no training and educational programs, and social advertising is a rare occurrence. As a result, only 14 percent of young people can name ways to prevent AIDS, and only one in every three knows how it is transmitted. It is true that there is too little money. Of the 52 million dollars required for antiretroviral therapy the government, assisted by international organizations, has scraped together 12 million. At the same time, the authors of the report point out that the health ministry has regularly overpaid for antiretroviral therapy medications. The average cost of treatment for one HIV-infected person within the ministry’s network amounted to $6,300 a year, whereas civic organizations somehow managed to lower it to $522.
The rights of people infected with HIV are a separate subject. Seventy percent of surveyed individuals admitted that their diagnosis was divulged, and 40 percent complained that their right to work and medical assistance was infringed. As a result one-third of respondents stated that they did not know whether their HIV was progressing because they had no access to medical institutions.
The newly established coalition Business against AIDS will fight discrimination against people living with HIV. However, its task will be primarily to give financial support to HIV prevention projects and various company-based training courses and seminars. Most people regard HIV as a very remote reality that has nothing whatsoever to do with them. A poll carried out by the business coalition showed that only 6 percent of companies believe that the spread of HIV is a problem; 86 percent of company personnel said that, unlike alcoholism, the AIDS epidemic does not and cannot affect company revenues. Every fifth respondent declared that he did not see anything terrible about the spread of AIDS.
In a word, something has to be done, as the secretary of the National Security and Defense Council , Anatoliy Kinakh, declared on Nov. 15. It will take concerted action. The epidemic will be discussed at a special meeting of the NSDC in December. Today the budget is the number-one issue on the agenda. Although the number of people infected with HIV has increased by 10,000 this year, this fact is not reflected in the draft of the main financial document of Ukraine. On the contrary, they want to cut appropriations for HIV/AIDS programs by two million hryvnias.
