4. AIDS continues 'devastating' sweep

AIDS continues 'devastating' sweep

Before you start reading, study the following vocabulary:

Spread
Pace
Reveal
To face something 
Depend on
Estimate
Victim 
Call for


AIDS continues 'devastating' sweep

The virus that causes AIDS is continuing to spread worldwide at a dramatic pace, with Eastern Europe particularly hard hit, the United Nations has warned.
The U.N. report revealed that 75,000 new infections of the virus had been reported in Russia by early November, a 15-fold increase in just three years. 
The U.N. also warned that AIDS was continuing to spread worldwide at a dramatic pace, with 40 million children and adults infected by HIV, an increase of four million from last year. 
Dr Peter Piot, executive director of the U.N. programme on HIV/AIDS, UNAIDS, warned: "HIV is spreading rapidly throughout the entire Eastern European region."
"It is the most devastating disease we have ever faced and it will get worse before it gets better." 
In an interview published in a Russian newspaper on Saturday, Piot said millions in Russia could die from AIDS over the next decade if the government does not take some steps to fight the spread of the disease. 
"All will depend on which position the leadership of the country takes," Piot told the newspaper Vremya. 
The United Nations estimates that the number of victims in Ukraine has risen from 110,000 in 1997 to as many as 240,000 in 1999. 
The Christian agency World Vision called on Saturday for the church to take a more realistic attitude to the use of condoms in an attempt to slow the global spread of the disease.

 
 
 
 

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Questions

What do the following statements mean?
  1. "Eastern Europe particularly hard hit" means: 
  2. "Over the next decade" means: 
  3. "The entire Eastern European region. " means: 
  4. "Devastating sweep" means: 
  5. "An attempt to slow the global spread" means: 
Are the following statements about the text correct?

1.   Russia is going to face real problems with AIDS very soon.

2.   AIDS is spreading quickly in the Eastern Europe.

3.   The number of infected people in Russia has gone down.

4.   There are about 4 million children and adults infected worldwide.

5.   The attitude of the church to condoms is realistic.