President and deputies urged to save the lives of people with TB, AIDS and hepatitis
Ukrainians with tuberculosis, AIDS and hepatitis have asked President Viktor Yanukovych to save their lives by issuing a special order to allocate UAH 1 billion in the 2013 state budget for their treatment. The appeal was signed by 117 NGOs, including the International Renaissance Foundation’s Public Health Program. The appeal was initiated by the Ukrainian Community Advisory Board.
“The activists collected more than 6,000 signatures from Ukrainians with hepatitis C that will be handed over to Viktor Yanukovych along with an open letter, because in all the years of independence the state hasn’t allocated a kopeck for hepatitis C treatment, leaving these people to die,” said Olena Kucheruk, the manager of the Public Health Program.
Leading Ukrainian NGOs that work with people living with HIV, hepatitis and tuberculosis have also launched the public campaign “Deputy-Altruist” and made a personal appeal to every member of parliament to give up a part of their deputy privileges and give these funds to the sick.
On the campaign website you can monitor the reaction to the appeal by people’s deputies. Deputies that give a positive written response are moved from the “I Don’t Care” column to the “Alstruist” column.
Billboards with photos of patients wearing masks have gone up on all the main squares in Kyiv.
One billion hryvnias is only one-third of the amount allocated annually for health care and spa rehabilitation for public officials. This money could save the lives of more than 100,000 terminally ill Ukrainians in 2013.
9.5% of the population in Ukraine is infected with HIV, tuberculosis or viral hepatitis. That’s 4,184,000 Ukrainians. In 20 years, Ukraine has lost 369,780 citizens to these epidemics.
Contacts:
Ukrainian Community Advisory Board
Inna Boyko
+38 050 381 96 00
inna.b@ucab.org.ua
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The mission of the Public Health program is to reform public health, to improve public health through support of new approaches to solution of urgent public health problems, in particular, by introduction of a complex model of protection of the rights of patients, palliative care, and support to people living with HIV/AIDS and non-medical drug use.
