NPR’s ‘Morning Edition’ Reports on HIV/AIDS in Eastern Europe
NPR's "Morning Edition" today includes an interview about a UNICEF report on the rate of HIV infection in Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union with Kasia Malinowska-Sempruch, director of not-for-profit Open Society Institute's International Harm Reduction Development Program, which oversees international HIV/AIDS prevention efforts (Edwards, "Morning Edition," NPR, 9/26). The report, titled "The Social Monitor 2002" and produced by the UNICEF Innocenti Research Center in Florence, Italy, tracked the "well-being" of children and young adults in Eastern Europe and "warn[ed]" that HIV -- which is spreading "virtually unchecked" -- is the "greatest threat" to the health of the region's youth. According to the report, HIV is spreading faster in some parts of Eastern Europe than anywhere else in the world. The report recommends that the region increase HIV/AIDS education, especially in schools and among "at risk" populations, including females and low-income residents (Kaiser Daily HIV/AIDS Report, 9/19). When asked what governments and public health agencies in the region are doing to fight HIV/AIDS, Malinowska-Sempruch said, "It will vary from country to country. What governments are doing mostly is allowing international organizations to come in and do some preventive work. It very rarely happens that the governments themselves take responsibility and fund those activities" ("Morning Edition," NPR, 9/26).
The full segment will be available online in RealPlayer Audio after noon ET.