Global AIDS Remembrance Day Celebrated in Fourteen Cities Throughout Ukraine

Events in a nationwide public awareness campaign took place in 14 Ukrainian cities on Sunday, coinciding with a global remembrance day for those who have died of AIDS. The campaign included programs in schools, seminars, concerts, booklet distribution on the streets, and a memorial quilt. The program was created last year after surveys showed that HIV-infected people suffer discrimination in Ukrainian society.

Program sponsors included Doctors Without Borders, the International AIDS Alliance, UNAIDS, British Council, United States Agency for International Development, the Soros-Renaissance Foundation, the Elton John Fund and drug-maker GlaxoSmithKline.

Similar government-sponsored programs, which focused on HIV/AIDS prevention among youth and on removing the stigma associated with the disease in Ukrainian society, have shown positive results. About 43,600 Ukrainians, including more than 3,000 children, have been officially registered as HIV-infected, according to the All Ukrainian Network of People Living with HIV/AIDS. However, a World Health Organization report put the actual figure for 1999 at 240,000, more than double the 1997 level.

Ukraine was chosen in January to serve on the 15-member board of directors of the $1.9 billion Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, which was established at the behest of UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan. Annan is scheduled to visit Ukraine June 2-4.

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