A U.N. official has called on Ukrainian authorities to play a more active role in fighting AIDS, which has already killed some 18,000 Ukrainians.
UNAIDS country coordinator Ani Shakarishvili said Friday that coordination of efforts to fight AIDS in the nation of 46 million is impossible without the government’s active participation.
Ukraine has some 160,000 officially registered cases of HIV, the virus that leads to AIDS.
The nation registered its first AIDS cases in 1987 and experienced a surge in the 1990s, mostly due to rampant intravenous drug use.
