:00:05. > :00:15.Now, in Our World, we travelled to the Ukraine to investigate why the
:00:15. > :00:19.
:00:19. > :00:26.country has the fastest growing AIDS worst HIV epidemic in Europe.
:00:26. > :00:30.Initially fuelled by rampant drug use, infection has been rising here
:00:30. > :00:40.I'm more than anywhere else on the earth. -- by more than anywhere
:00:40. > :00:50.else. Today, many go untreated. They have to fight off police
:00:50. > :00:59.
:00:59. > :01:05.intimidation and steep social millions of dollars have been poured
:01:05. > :01:08.into fighting this epidemic. I am in the Ukraine to find out why people
:01:08. > :01:18.here with HIV are more likely to die of AIDS than their counterparts in
:01:18. > :01:55.
:01:55. > :01:59.to find, but alcohol and cheap drugs are everywhere. I have come to see a
:01:59. > :02:09.former drug addict who is HIV-positive, living in this town,
:02:09. > :02:38.
:02:38. > :02:42.substitute with her boyfriend. Since then, she has spent two years in
:02:42. > :02:52.prison and lost more than a dozen of her school friends to drugs and
:02:52. > :02:52.
:02:52. > :03:36.Apology for the loss of subtitles for 44 seconds
:03:36. > :03:46.accidentally by being diagnosed with hepatitis, but local clinic did not
:03:46. > :03:46.
:03:46. > :04:27.Apology for the loss of subtitles for 44 seconds
:04:27. > :04:30.of the world 's fastest-growing HIV academic. -- epidemics. Globally,
:04:30. > :04:40.infection and mortality rates have been falling for years, but not in
:04:40. > :04:47.
:04:47. > :04:55.Ukrainians are living with HIV, fewer than one in six receives
:04:55. > :05:05.treatment. By contrast, some sub-Saharan Africa in countries like
:05:05. > :05:15.Botswana and Rwanda managed to provide 80% of their infected
:05:15. > :05:22.
:05:22. > :05:27.pharmacy near the president's office are fearing that access to
:05:27. > :05:37.anti-retroviral drugs could soon be even more difficult. The government
:05:37. > :06:00.
:06:00. > :06:04.wants a new law to force control on a patient's pressure group. He
:06:04. > :06:12.accuses the health Ministry of embezzling money that should be used
:06:12. > :06:22.to treat patients. He believes that anti-retrovirals are bored at hugely
:06:22. > :06:50.
:06:50. > :07:00.inflated prices and that officials outskirts of the town. -- me to
:07:00. > :07:00.
:07:00. > :08:34.Apology for the loss of subtitles for 44 seconds
:08:34. > :08:44.strength to carry on from her family and from doctors at one key facility
:08:44. > :08:44.
:08:44. > :09:41.Apology for the loss of subtitles for 44 seconds
:09:41. > :09:45.clinic in central Kiev for checkups clinic, it opens the Ukraine's first
:09:45. > :09:55.HIV clinic in 1989, only six years after the first cases of AIDS were
:09:55. > :10:01.
:10:01. > :10:05.Ukrainians who actually get anti-retroviral treatment. The
:10:05. > :10:15.clinic supplies 1800 outpatients with the drugs and trains doctors
:10:15. > :10:16.
:10:16. > :10:26.not want to be identified has little faith in his doctor in his
:10:26. > :10:53.
:10:53. > :10:57.most serious cases. For many, this is their refuge and last hope. This
:10:57. > :11:03.small clinic isn't enough. This is a country where the death rate is
:11:03. > :11:13.still climbing, even though it has come down in most of the world,
:11:13. > :11:22.
:11:22. > :11:27.including the worst hit region, uncertain. The head doctor explains
:11:27. > :11:37.her clinic occupies a valuable piece of real estate in the city centre.
:11:37. > :12:07.
:12:07. > :12:12.For two years, she has come under century Hurley centre of Orthodox
:12:12. > :12:16.Christianity in the Slav world. -- early centre. In a television
:12:16. > :12:26.interview, the Archbishop of them honestly made it clear what he
:12:26. > :12:26.
:12:26. > :13:13.Apology for the loss of subtitles for 44 seconds
:13:13. > :13:19.thought of his neighbours. -- Church and state are closely
:13:19. > :13:24.entwined, as they are a cross the border in Russia. Although the
:13:24. > :13:34.monastery is a Ukrainian Orthodox, it is under the control of someone
:13:34. > :13:34.
:13:34. > :14:20.Apology for the loss of subtitles for 44 seconds
:14:20. > :14:25.Do you take that message across But the clinic will be split in two
:14:25. > :14:34.and relocated in separate parts of the cattle. One is his refurbished
:14:34. > :14:38.building on the outskirts of the city. It has seven birds and is a
:14:38. > :14:48.long way away from the train station and it makes access more
:14:48. > :14:54.
:14:54. > :15:02.difficult. The move is to take But some in Ukraine refused to be
:15:02. > :15:06.marginalised and are fighting back. Liza Yaroshenko was born HIV-
:15:06. > :15:10.positive and lost her mother to AIDS when she was six years old.
:15:10. > :15:20.Although she tries to live like any 14-year-old, she knows these pills
:15:20. > :15:29.
:15:29. > :15:39.Liza has an awful lot of different pills to take and she has to take
:15:39. > :15:45.
:15:45. > :15:49.them at the same time every day. Last December, Liza became the
:15:49. > :15:57.youngest person to address the Ukrainian Parliament. She asked MPs
:15:57. > :16:07.to ensure proper funding for HIV patients. But she claims a few
:16:07. > :16:07.
:16:07. > :16:50.Apology for the loss of subtitles for 44 seconds
:16:50. > :17:00.staff members at her school were I took an overnight train to Odessa,
:17:00. > :17:07.
:17:07. > :17:09.which over a decade ago was the Even when programmes have been
:17:09. > :17:19.introduced to help addicts and prevent HIV, the authorities are
:17:19. > :17:23.
:17:23. > :17:28.In this clinic, patients are prescribed artificial opiates like
:17:28. > :17:35.methadone, which is safer than injecting street drugs. Sebina, one
:17:35. > :17:43.of the patients is grateful. Now, my life has changed. It has changed
:17:43. > :17:53.because of the methadone? Yes. When I'd come to the methadone therapy,
:17:53. > :17:59.I was broken. My soul was broken. And now I am like a phoenix.
:17:59. > :18:07.are like a phoenix, you have been reborn? Yes. Because this programme
:18:07. > :18:17.has given me so much. So much. Sebina and others claim they have
:18:17. > :18:18.
:18:18. > :18:21.been harassed by law-enforcement. They say it is because police make
:18:21. > :18:25.money from the addicts. It is an easy allegation to make, but is
:18:25. > :18:32.there any proof that the police are mixed up in this business, they are
:18:32. > :18:42.selling drugs? They sell heroin, opium and other drugs. And I know
:18:42. > :18:46.
:18:46. > :18:52.it's in 100 people, I know it. Because my brother was working in
:18:52. > :18:54.this department. Your brother was a police officer? He was.
:18:54. > :19:00.Substitution therapy remains controversial and is banned in
:19:00. > :19:02.neighbouring Russia. Are Ukraine's law enforcers so dishonest they are
:19:02. > :19:11.blocking a programme which has successfully cut HIV infection
:19:11. > :19:21.rates in many other countries? In Kiev, I speak to the interior
:19:21. > :19:35.
:19:35. > :19:43.Once part of the Soviet Union, Ukraine has, over the past 20 years,
:19:43. > :19:46.struggled to assert its independence. If the western half
:19:46. > :19:56.of this country of 46 million is drawn to the European Union, the
:19:56. > :19:59.
:19:59. > :20:05.eastern regions back close ties to In an echo of recent legislation in
:20:06. > :20:14.Russia, there are plans to ban so- called homosexual propaganda. Some
:20:15. > :20:17.fear it will further stigmatise Ukraine's male, gay community. This
:20:17. > :20:24.newly-created Committee for tackling HIV and AIDS, is having
:20:24. > :20:30.its first meeting in the Parliament. I grab the chance to ask the deputy
:20:30. > :20:40.chairwoman about the draft law. Won't it make one high risk group
:20:40. > :21:01.
:21:01. > :21:03.We have to find out the risk group. Such attitudes are widespread, some
:21:03. > :21:13.would say dangerous given the Government spends nothing in
:21:13. > :21:46.
:21:46. > :21:53.The global fund helped finance backed by the form Microsoft boss,
:21:53. > :21:56.Bill Gates, is spending $92 million a year in tackling AIDS here. But
:21:56. > :22:00.they are no longer channelling it through the Government, fearing the
:22:00. > :22:09.money was being stolen or wasted. It is now going through and a non-
:22:09. > :22:12.Government organisation called the AIDS Alliance instead. This group
:22:12. > :22:22.works on the frontline of the epidemic, among drug-users and sex
:22:22. > :22:46.
:22:46. > :22:49.The Alliance has a mobile testing Tonight, they are paying a house
:22:49. > :22:59.call, taking boxes of clean syringes and condoms to the flat of
:22:59. > :23:13.
:23:13. > :23:23.Vladimira now gives addicts like this a chance to exchange syringes
:23:23. > :24:00.
:24:00. > :24:02.Despite the corruption, the stigma and the lack of Government support,
:24:02. > :24:12.there is hope that the next generation will be better equipped
:24:12. > :24:19.
:24:19. > :24:29.Viktoria is now trying to raise awareness in her hometown, but a
:24:29. > :24:44.
:24:44. > :24:52.diagnosis of HIV need not be a Liza and Viktoria, people with
:24:52. > :25:02.first-hand experience are pioneers of this new consciousness. I asked
:25:02. > :25:16.
:25:16. > :25:18.Liza that if being HIV-positive But foreign money is running out
:25:18. > :25:26.fast, funds for prevention and medicines are only guaranteed until
:25:26. > :25:31.2016. The death toll is still rising, but tackling the epidemic
:25:31. > :25:34.is not high on the political agenda. The rest of the world may be