Ukraine’s Health Care System ‘Stretched’ Due To Growing HIV/AIDS Epidemic
Ukraine's health care system will be "stretched to [a] breaking point" due to the growing number of HIV cases in the country, Oleksander Yaremenko, head of the Ukrainian Institute for Social Studies, said yesterday at a news conference, Reuters reports. Yaremenko, who released a report conducted in conjunction with the country's Health Ministry, said, "Recent figures show that the outlook is pessimistic. About 1.44 million people will be infected with HIV/AIDS by 2010 and by that time [complications of] the disease will have killed about 90,000" people. The country's health system could become strained because it is "unlikely" that the country will be able to pay for treatment for the rising number of HIV-positive citizens, according to the report. Yuri Kruglov, a physician from the Health Ministry's AIDS center, said that the country has a national HIV/AIDS program and is "actively cooperating with foreign agencies," but he added that local authorities are often "unwilling" to participate in the program or are not aware of complications related to the disease, according to Reuters. He also said that many Ukrainians have difficultly discussing sex and that safe sex awareness is "very poor" (Horodetska, Reuters, 2/19).
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