The Russian government has drafted legislation that would make it illegal to urge people not to seek treatment for AIDS or to deny the existence of HIV, the virus that causes the disease.

The Health Ministry submitted the draft amendments to the State Duma on April 16.

The legislature is expected to begin consideration of the bill during its fall 2018 session and, if passed, the measures would come into force on January 1, 2019.

The so-called AIDS-dissenter legislation was apparently drafted in the wake of several cases over the last few years in which parents allegedly withheld treatment from their HIV-infected children, often because of religious considerations.

In September 2017, a 10-year-old girl in St. Petersburg died of AIDS, although doctors had been urging her parents for years to have her treated.

In April 2017, a 3-year-old girl in Tyumen died of AIDS complications. Criminal charges were filed against her mother after a medical commission determined that proper treatment would have significantly extended the child's life. Read more via Radio Free Europe