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Ukraine Medical Outreach
Estimates indicate anywhere from 250,000 to
500,000 Ukrainians are currently infected with the AIDS virus.
Within the next decade, the U.S. Agency for International Development
estimates that one in twenty Ukrainians will have AIDS, or
approximately 2.5 million people.
One percent of all cases of AIDS currently in
Ukraine are infants secondary to maternal infant transmission.
We have been working on developing a relationship
with Children’s Hospital #1 in the Obolon district of Kyiv.
Marianna has been visiting the children regularly. Since last year, the
number of children who live there has increased from 5 to 27. Jim has
been meeting with the chief doctor of the department, Svetlana.
Above:
Jeanne in 2004 with Nadia, then 4
Right:
Dr. Jim with Anotonia.
Marianna with Nadia and Antonia in 2004. Antonia
is doing well with potty training this year.
In addition to simply loving the children –
feeding them, talking to them, hugging them – UMO also provides
some basic supplies. A church in Seattle provided the funds for a
washing machine so that the children’s clothes could be cleaned
in a more gentle machine – the institutional machine was
particularly rough on the little clothes that need to be laundered
regularly. We also have provided sheets, disposable gloves and
disposable diapers.
According to Svetlana, the situation for these
children is very difficult. Lack of technology to diagnose quickly and
accurately, as well as an insufficient amount of medicine to treat
children, leads to increased transmission of HIV from mother to child
and shortened life expectancies.
If tests could be performed on pregnant women,
and antiretrovirals administered to both mother and infant, the HIV
transmission would drop from 17% to 2%.
At Right:
Inna, 9 months, gives a friendly wave.
Below:
10 month old Sergey visits with
7 month old Natasha.
We are networking with other organizations to
consider a long-term strategy for dealing with this growing epidemic.
With current procedures in Ukraine, a definite
diagnosis cannot be made until a child is 18 months old unless the
child is symptomatic. Even when the diagnosis is made, children often
receive only half doses of therapy which shortens lives as well as
creating HIV strains that are resistant to current therapy.
