USA Continues to Support HIV/AIDS Fight in Ukraine

Ambassador Mark Dybol gives interview. Ambassador Mark Dybul, Global HIV/AIDS Coordinator for the U.S.  Government President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR), visited the Kyiv City AIDS Center today, where he discussed HIV/AIDS services provided by the Center, including methadone-based medication assisted therapy for injection drug users.   The United States Government is supporting the delivery of medication assisted therapy services for male and female HIV-infected injection drug users at the Kyiv AIDS Center through its SUNRISE Project, implemented by the International HIV/AIDS Alliance.  The activity builds on the significant support provided by the Global Fund to assist the Government of Ukraine to scale up medication assisted therapy services. Ambassador Dybul commended the Government of Ukraine for the leadership it has demonstrated to date in supporting implementation of this vital program, and emphasized the importance of partnership and cooperation with the Ministry of Health, Global Fund and HIV/AIDS partners and stakeholders to strengthen Ukraine’s national AIDS response and contain HIV transmission by bringing key services to most at risk populations. Since 2001, the U.S.  Agency for International Development (USAID) has been supporting Ukraine in fighting HIV/AIDS.  Currently more than 170,000 Ukrainians who are at high risk of HIV infection in the most affected regions receive prevention services and information thanks to the «SUNRISE» Program which is supported by a budget of $10 million implemented by the “International HIV/AIDS Alliance in Ukraine”. The United States of America is the largest single country donor among more than 50 donor countries of the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, supporting the implementation of two programs in Ukraine with a total budget ceiling of more than $250 millions.   Quotes: «Overall more than 1,500 drug addicted patients currently receive this effective treatment in 52 healthcare institutions of Ukraine.  Next year, we plan to provide treatment for 5,000 patients who urgently require the therapy.  This would be impossible to do if it were not for the financial support of the Global Fund and USAID», said Andriy Klepikov, Executive Director of the ICF “International HIV/AIDS Alliance in Ukraine.” According to the Ministry of Health, «the Government does not rely solely on international support.  A new draft of the National Program on HIV/AIDS would increase state funding for related activities about seven times.  The Program envisages provision of substitution maintenance therapy for 20 thousand drug addicted patients».   *** Ambassador Mark R.  Dybul, U.S.  Global AIDS Coordinator Term of Appointment: 08/11/2006 to present Ambassador Mark R.  Dybul serves as the United States Global AIDS Coordinator, leading the implementation of President Bush's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief.  Ambassador Dybul also serves as a member of the Board of Trustees of the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, appointed by President Bush as the designated member from within the federal government.   Ambassador Dybul oversees all U.S.  Government engagement in the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria and currently serves as Chair of the Global Fund Finance and Audit Committee.  Ambassador Dybul is also former Vice Chair and current Chair of the Joint United Nations Program on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) Program Coordinating Board.   From March to August 2006, Ambassador Dybul served as Acting U.S.  Global AIDS Coordinator, and prior to that he held the positions of Deputy U.S.  Global AIDS Coordinator and Assistant U.S.  Global AIDS Coordinator.  Before coming to the Coordinator's Office, he served on the Planning Task Force for the Emergency Plan, and was the lead for the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) for President Bush's International Prevention of Mother and Child HIV Initiative.   At HHS, he also served as the Assistant Director for Medical Affairs, National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), National Institutes of Health (NIH), as well as Co-Executive Secretary of the HHS HIV therapy guidelines for adults and adolescents.  He continues to be a Staff Clinician in the Laboratory of Immunoregulation at NIAID/NIH and maintains an active role as the principal investigator for clinical and basic research for U.S.  and international protocols with an emphasis on HIV therapy, particularly those that may be applicable in resource-poor settings, including intermittent therapy and HIV reservoirs and immunopathogenesis.  Ambassador Dybul holds the rank of assistant surgeon general and rear admiral in the U.S.  Public Health Service Commissioned Corps, the uniformed service of HHS.  He is also a former member of the World Health Organization's Writing Committee to develop global HIV therapy guidelines.   Ambassador Dybul received his A.B.  (1985) and M.D.  (1992) from Georgetown University before completing his residency in internal medicine at the University of Chicago Hospitals (1995) and a fellowship in infectious diseases at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (1998).