Japan To Give $890,000 To Help Launch Five-Year, $25M Anti-AIDS Program in Central Asia
The Japanese government on Wednesday agreed to provide approximately $890,000 to help fight HIV/AIDS in the Central Asian nations of Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan, according to the Finance Ministry of Kyrgyzstan, the Associated Press reports. The funds will be used to help launch a five-year, $25 million project aimed at curbing the spread of HIV in the region and minimizing its economic and social impact. The project -- which is funded by the World Bank and Britain's Department for International Development -- is expected to begin in 2005, according to the Associated Press. In the four Central Asian countries, approximately 90,000 people are known to be HIV-positive, but experts believe the actual number of HIV-positive people in the region may be 10 times greater. The spread of HIV in Central Asia is due largely to increases in injection drug use, commercial sex work and cross-border migration, the Associated Press reports (Associated Press, 9/8).
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