Kazakhstan has developed a programme for fighting the HIV/AIDS epidemic for 2006-2010. About 6.7 billion tenge (over 53 million US dollars) are to be allotted for its implementation, Kazakhs Health Minister Yerbolat Dosayev told journalists on Monday. According to the minister, “The programme’s aim is to curb the spread of HIV/AIDS in the country at the level of 0.5 percent among the population aged from 15 to 49 at the end of 2010.” Over 5,000 HIV-infected has been officially registered in Kazakhstan and, according to a report on the global AIDS epidemic made public in May by the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS), the epidemic in this Central Asian country is spreading at a quick pace. The programme envisages measures aimed at fighting HIV/AIDS in five key spheres – the improvement of the policy of legal relations, efficient implementation of prevention programmes, as well as medical treatment, care and support of HIV-infected and people having AIDS, as well as implementation of special social programmes for those affected by HIV infection. (Itar-Tass)