Like Russia Ukraine registered it’s first case of HIV in 1987, and since this time the virus has spread rapidly amongst intravenous drug users, many of them street children, and sex workers.

From the first registered case until the 1st September 2004 Ukraine registered 70,283 hiv infected citizens of which 7,656 were children. Given the seasonal sex trade in tourist cities such as Odessa where young women from other regions of Ukraine might work for a few months and then return home, and discrimination and poor social care for registered cases, it is also thought that the actual number of infected cases could be much higher.