The Joint UN Program on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) has developed a program to educate Ukrainian sex workers about HIV prevention, the first project of its kind in Eastern Europe and the Commonwealth of Independent States, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty reports.
     Ukraine has the fastest growing HIV-infection rate in Europe, with an estimated 250,000 people infected. Until recently, HIV was mostly found among intravenous drug users, but sexual transmission and mother-to-infant transmission are now responsible for more than one-third of infections, with commercial sex workers serving as the main conduit of transmission to the general population.
     Compounding the problem, Ukrainian sex workers, a group plagued with poor living conditions, low social status and low self-esteem, are ignored by the government, exploited by law enforcement and denied health care services and HIV prevention education. Explaining that these women are often wrongly perceived as the sole source of HIV infection, educator Veena Lakhumalani, who came from India to consult on the UNAIDS project, said "you can't blame the women only ... they shouldn't be thought of as the only people responsible."
     During its first year the project helped sex workers and their clients, but as German funding and British Council technical assistance for the project have ended, the project has now reached something of a dead end, according to Olga Balakireva of the Ukrainian Institute of Social Research. Balakireva, uncertain as to the project's future, added that though rewarding, the program has been a significant challenge.
     "We've reached a wider circle of problems -- beyond the project, but very important to it," she said. "We've come to the necessity of changing legislation, changing social attitudes, changing the responsibilities of participants in the sex industry, not just women but others, the organizers."
     Project organizers hope their HIV prevention work will serve as a useful model for other nations in the region that have not yet tackled the issue (RFE/RFL, Russia Today, 10 Oct).