(AP) – The explosion of HIV infection among young, working Ukrainians could stall economic growth, scare away investors and derail the new government’s promises of a better life in the former Soviet republic, experts warned Nov. 15.
“The HIV epidemic might be the key obstacle to economic growth in Ukraine,” Viktor Veselskiy, the country’s first deputy health minister, told a conference of business leaders.
The event was aimed at pressing industry to help this cash-starved government battle a growing HIV/AIDS problem that under worst-case scenarios could infect some 1.4 million Ukrainians – almost 3 percent of the population – within five years.
Ukraine already has one of the highest HIV infection rates in Eastern Europe, with the government saying 76,875 HIV-positive people have officially been registered since the first reported case in 1987.
President Viktor Yushchenko noted last weekend, however, that some experts suggest as many as 500,000 people – 1 percent of the population – are infected. Ukraine’s working young represent the largest number of victims, and infection rates have exploded in Ukraine’s industrial east and south.
Some 39 new HIV cases are recorded every day in this nation of 47 million, experts said.
“Every investor when investing in a particular country will think twice when seeing rates like that,” Kinakh said.
The business leaders were encouraged to begin programs to educate their work force about prevention and take more active steps to discourage discrimination, which often pushes HIV-infected Ukrainians into the margins of society.
“HIV-infected people shouldn’t be seen as a threat, it’s the infection that’s the threat,” said former Foreign Minister Konstantyn Grytsenko.
Yushchenko has said that tackling HIV/AIDS will be a major focus for his administration next year. But the 2006 budget calls for reduced spending, not more, officials noted. Kinakh acknowledged that had to change.
Ukraine’s efforts to bring Western European living standards to this nation face huge hurdles if the future work force is decimated by HIV/AIDS, officials said.
