Bill Clinton Joins Ukrainian Foundations in Fight Against AIDS in Ukraine

The Elena Franchuk ANTIAIDS Foundation and the Victor Pinchuk Foundation have signed a five-year agreement with the Clinton HIV/AIDS Initiative implementing projects aimed at reducing HIV/AIDS and providing care and support for HIV/AIDS patients in Ukraine. Elena Franchuk and Victor Pinchuk are contributing $2.5 million to the project.

"I'm happy to be working with the Elena Franchuk ANTIAIDS Foundation and the Victor Pinchuk Foundation on expanding access to HIV/AIDS prevention, care, and treatment services in Ukraine," said former President Bill Clinton. "Through their generous support, we will be able to greatly increase the number of people with access to these services, and I am grateful for the partnership."

During the first year, work will center on the Dnepropetrovsk region, in southeast Ukraine, home to more than 3 million people. The program's initiatives will be replicated in other regions in ensuing years.

Specifically, efforts will focus on increased access to rapid testing, improved laboratory capacity, training and mentoring health care workers, introducing HIV treatment/substitution therapy, and improving drug-procurement processes and prices. The program will also work nationally to expand HIV testing legislation, develop rapid HIV test guidelines, and register methadone for substitution therapy.

The project results from discussions begun in 2004, after which the Clinton Foundation and Ukraine's government signed an agreement assisting the government in getting low prices on generic antiretrovirals. In 2005, during Clinton's visit to Ukraine, a memorandum was signed to identify priorities in the fight against HIV/AIDS. The five-year program resulted from that memorandum.

The William J. Clinton Foundation's HIV/AIDS Initiative has helped bring care and treatment to more than 415,000 HIV/AIDS patients worldwide.

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