UN Official: Greater Democracy Is Key to Fighting HIV/AIDS Epidemic in Ukraine, Russia

On Sunday, Kalman Mizsei, regional director for the UN Development Program, said stronger democracy is the key to fighting AIDS in the former Soviet republics, where HIV infection rates are growing faster than anywhere in the world. Mizsei said widespread public cynicism about the government was "a major contributor" to HIV's spread in Russia and Ukraine.

"You can talk about antiretrovirals and needle exchanges, but none of these things are going to be effective in a non-democratic and non-transparent setting," Mizsei said.

Intravenous drug use is the leading cause of HIV's spread in the former Soviet Union, but instances of sexual transmission are increasing. Efforts to stem the epidemic through public awareness campaigns have been hampered by government officials who tend to under-represent HIV/AIDS prevalence because of embarrassment about the scale of the problem. Mizsei urged post-Soviet leaders to model their policies after Western governments, whose public awareness campaigns stemmed the disease's spread through increasing openness and fighting stigma. "The disease punishes non-democratic societies and it rewards democratic societies," he said.

Ukraine has the highest HIV infection rate in the region. Roughly 56,000 Ukrainians are registered as HIV-positive, but UN estimates show infection rates actually nearly 10 times higher. The UN has warned that infection rates in Ukraine could triple by 2010. Russian officials say 250,000 people are HIV-positive, but doctors believe the figure is more than 1 million.

Mizsei spoke in Kiev, where he was running Sunday in the annual UN-sponsored Race for Life, a 3-kilometer (1.9-mile) race down the length of Kiev's main boulevard to raise public awareness of AIDS. Approximately 4,000 people ran in the race.

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