PBS’ NewsHour on Wednesday featured a story on HIV/AIDS in the Ukraine, which has Europe’s highest HIV/AIDS rate, increasing fears that the epidemic could spread to neighboring countries. The story focuses on attempts to implement drug substitution therapy programs for injecting drug users and prevent the virus from moving into the general population.

Though Ukraine has made progress in fighting the disease, including reducing mother-to-child transmission by 75 percent in six years and providing free HIV treatment through the national health care system, “[t]he question is whether the Ukrainian government can surmount the political and structural hurdles it faces in time to take control of the spreading epidemic,” NewsHour reports (Kay, 5/11).