Stop TB national project being realized by SCM's Foundation for Development of Ukraine was presented in Donetsk. Authorities, non-governmental organizations, and business officials signed the Ukraine Without TB Memorandum, which provides for consolidation of efforts of all sides to combat TB epidemic.

The project targets to consolidate efforts of all stakeholders to solve the problem of TB. The authorities, international and Ukrainian NGOs, and business officials have already joined the project and signed the Ukraine without TB Memorandum. The President Rinat Akhmetov was the first to sign the Memorandum on behalf of the Foundation for Development of Ukraine.

 
Donetsk regional program will be financed by three sources.

TB is a national disaster. We must consolidate efforts of the government, business, and the public in order not simply to fight this horrible disease but to prevail. We also need to manage the fighting process effectively. For this reason, Donetsk brought together the people with different political view but with the common goal of supporting the national project Stop TB! The event was attended by MPs Rinat Akhmetov, Georgiy Skudar, Vladimir Boiko, Sergey Bubka, Valentin Landik, Yefim Zvyagilskiy, Tatyana Bakhteyeva; businessmen Sergey Taruta and Vadim Novinskiy; ombudsman Nina Karpachyova; a well-known doctor Olga Bogomolets; as well as governors of Donetsk, Zaporozhye, Lvov, and Nikolayev regions. The project was initiated by the Foundation for Development of Ukraine. Its strategy has a special focus on the regional program launched in Donetsk.

“I'm attending such a big event for the first time in the history of independent Ukraine”, admitted professor Yuriy Fishchenko, Doctor of Medical Sciences, Director of Yanovskiy National Institute of Phthisiology and Pulmonology of the Academy of Medical Sciences of Ukraine, chief pulmonologist and chief TB doctor of the Ministry of Health Care of Ukraine. “The project covers all stages of TB-fight from prevention and detection to provision of social help to patients. Through the project implementation every resident of Ukraine, first of all in Donetsk region, will feel the activity of Foundation for Development of Ukraine”, highlighted the academician adding that it is the first project in the country that wont' be just a “declaration of intention” because it contains such an essential “detail” as financial supply.

Rinat Akhmetov is ready to spend UAH 100m to fund the national project over five years. Half of the amount will be allocated on the regional program launched in Donetsk region.

Donetsk region governor Vladimir Logvinenko said that the regional program will be financed from three sources: UAH 50m will be provided by the Foundation for Development of Ukraine, UAH 50m – by the regional budget, and UAH 16.5m – by budget of cities located in Donetsk region. The program also expects to involve new partners, which means additional non-budget funding.
 

“The effectiveness of program implementation lies in realization of the principle of general (civic, social and financial) responsibility, which has to be shared by all governments, state institutions and NGOs, foundations and, certainly, the society”, said Director of the Foundation for Development of Ukraine Anatoliy Zabolotny at the presentation. “We will invest funds in science, academic and practical activities. The regional program is a part of the national program. We believe that the project under implementation in Donetsk region will serve as an example for other regions”.

 
Around 40,000 people get infected by TB every year in Ukraine.
 

“I am sure the program presented here today will be implemented in all regions of Ukraine”, said Lvov governor, Pyotr Oliynyk.who eagerly supported the idea of project initiators to establish the model in Donetsk region and then apply it throughout the whole.

The national project is designed for five years and based on traditional principles of mass health examination, which saved USSR from TB epidemic twice (in 1932 and 1947). It includes a set of actions on prevention, diagnostics and treatment of TB, as well as raising awareness about the problem and promotion of healthy lifestyle. The project also provides for analysis and amendment of the TB regulatory framework, creation of a training center for TB doctors, and restoration of an anti-TB health resort for children of Ukraine.
 

“Many people believe the problem of TB affects only socially vulnerable people, but this is not true”, insists Olga Bogomolets-Sheremetyeva, Head of Permanent Committee for Public Health and Social Protection of Kiev City Council. “This problem has directly affected my family. A few know that my great grandfather Aleksandr Bogomolets, an outstanding scientist, was born in Lukyanovskaya prison. His mother, Sophia Bogomolets, took part in the People's Freedom movement. She died of the open form of TB and infected her son. Although my highly recognized great grandfather was the President of the Academy of Sciences of Ukraine and surely was treated by the best doctors in mature age, he died at 60 of pneumothorax – a consequence of TB he had in childhood”.

Today 600,000 TB-infected patients are registered in Ukraine (e.g. it equals the population of Chernovtsy region of Ukraine. – corr.), with 120,000 having an open form of TB. Every year adds 40,000 contracted patients.

Fighting TB epidemic in Ukraine belongs to the complex of tasks to ensure national security of Ukraine, believes Rinat Akhmetov, President of Foundation for Development of Ukraine and Member of Parliament of Ukraine.
 

“TB is a national disaster. The infection can enter any house, any family without knocking at the door. Nobody is protected from it”, noted Rinat Akhmetov. “I know what TB is. Unfortunately my family suffered from this disaster too. My elder brother Igor has just a half of lung left. We were fighting with the whole family for him, every day, every hour, every second. And only because of that did he defeat TB”.

The Ukraine without TB Memorandum will be a consolidating force for everybody who is ready to join the TB fight. When signing the Memorandum, the President of FDU noted that we need to unite and effectively manage the battling process to combat this horrible disease. “Then we won’t be just fighting TB but defeat it!”, he said at the end.
 

The Memorandum was joined right after the presentation by the Donetsk governor and Donetsk Regional Council Chairman. Head of the National Olympic Committee Sergey Bubka, World Health Organization officials, the Red Cross, and other organizations expressed their determination to join the project.
 

By Yelena Smirnova
Sourсe: Ukraine: Daily newspapers: Fakty
Published on: 19 May, 2007