November 3, 2000 1200am
The Associated Press
KIEV, UKRAINE -
Ukrainian President Leonid Kuchma ordered
his government to come up with a plan to battle AIDS in this former
Soviet republic, where the disease is threatening to spread rapidly, the
presidential press service said Thursday.
The presidential decree, signed
Wednesday, orders the government to create a commission headed by Deputy
Prime Minister Mykola Zhulynskyi and to adopt a program for combating
the disease in 2001-2003, the press service said.
AIDS has spread quickly in Ukraine
because of drug use and prostitution, and the country lacks the
resources for complex drug treatment. Demographers estimate that AIDS
may kill some 900,000-1.9 million people over the next 16 years.
As of Oct. 1, health officials registered
34,511 people infected with HIV, the virus that causes AIDS. However,
experts say the real numbers are considerably higher because many cases
go unreported.