Important note: Information in this article was accurate in 2006. The state of the art may have changed since the publication date.
Associated Press - December 1, 2006
President Viktor Yushchenko said that 100,000 Ukrainians, one-tenth of them children, have been officially registered as HIV-positive in Ukraine. Every day, 40 people are diagnosed with HIV, and eight die from AIDS, Yushchenko said.
"Such figures are shocking," Yushchenko said in a published address timed to coincide with World AIDS Day. "We can't be indifferent to them."
Yushchenko said that government agencies, international organizations and groups that work in the fight against AIDS must combine their efforts.
He also called for a new campaign to warn teenagers of the dangers of HIV, and said that every Ukrainian had a duty to fight the epidemic.
"The simplest and easiest means to lower the risk of HIV infection is marital fidelity and respect, values that have proven throughout the ages," Yushchenko said.
Some experts have suggested that the epidemic in Ukraine is greater than the official figures, with as many as half a million people - 1% of Ukraine's population - infected. International health experts have said that HIV is spreading faster in Ukraine than in other European nations.
Yushchenko appealed to society to be "tolerant" and show respect to HIV-infected people.
The president has promised that tackling the spread of HIV/AIDS would be one of the priorities of his administration.
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