The government’s press service on July 7 promised to facilitate the re-location of the Lavra clinic as HIV/AIDS patients and supporters picketed the Cabinet of Minister’s building in protest.
“The eviction of the Lavra clinic from the territory of the Kyiv Pechersk Lavra assumes the clinic’s relocation to a new site with the requisite facilities,” the government’s press service said. “This means that the rights and interests of the sick will in no way be violated.”
Prime Minister Mykola Azarov on June 14 approved a measure for evicting the Lavra clinic from the building it occupies adjacent to the monastery complex in line with the government’s decision “to develop and improve conditions at the site for tourists and visitors.”
The Lavra clinic is acknowledged in Ukraine as having the best medical practices for the treatment of people with HIV – albeit still short of international standards and budgets. It also has a strong base for the advanced training of infectious disease doctors in Ukraine and neighboring countries.
The clinic, which now specializes in treating people with HIV/AIDS, is run by the Hromashevskyi Institute of Epidemiology and Infectious diseases, and was opened with much fanfare in November 2002 by former United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan during his visit to Kyiv.
Inna Boyko, a policy and advocacy officer for the All-Ukrainian Network of People Living with AIDS, said about 50 patients from the clinic would participate in the protest in Kyiv. Hundreds more are expected to stage similar protests in major cities across Ukraine, she added.
Ukraine has of the fastest-growing infection rates in the world. The numbers are so alarming that many health experts still worry about whether the disease will spread from high-risk groups, where it has been concentrated, and start assuming African-like dimensions by spreading to the general population as well.
Some 500,000 people are believed to be HIV positive in Ukraine.
