Important note: Information in this article was accurate in 2002. The state of the art may have changed since the publication date.
Associated Press - Friday, December 20, 2002
The money will help the cash-strapped Ukrainian government apply a comprehensive prevention, diagnosis and epidemic control program to combat tuberculosis and AIDS. Ukraine will earmark US$17 million of its own for the program.
"This is a good start toward controlling the two epidemics," Luca Barbone, World Bank regional director for Ukraine, Belarus and Moldova said in a statement released Friday.
Ukraine's post-Soviet economic meltdown and the degradation of its cash-strapped state-run health care system has contributed to a swift rise in the number of AIDS and tuberculosis cases.
Officials have registered about 50,000 cases of HIV in Ukraine, but experts estimate that the actual number may be ten times higher, with about one percent of the nation's 48 million people infected with HIV. International AIDS experts have warned that the number of cases in Ukraine could rise above 1.4 million by 2010 if no effective measures are taken.
About 68,000 people are now infected with tuberculosis, and health officials have said that the number of cases may double if economic conditions continue to deteriorate. The death rate from tuberculosis has nearly tripled over the last decade.
According to the Health Ministry figures, 68 out of every 100,000 people in Ukraine currently have tuberculosis, up from about 32 people in 1991.
By comparison, the U.S. rate is less than 6 per 100,000.
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