H.I.V. Cases Surpass a Million in Russia, but Little Is Done
By NEIL MacFARQUHARDEC. 28, 2016
ST. PETERSBURG, Russia — Quietly, the number of Russians who have received a positive H.I.V. diagnosis passed the one million mark this year. There is, however, little indication that the government will commit adequate resources to stem the acceleration of the virus from high-risk groups into the general population.
About 850,000 Russians carry H.I.V. and an additional 220,000 have died since the late 1980s, said Vadim Pokrovsky, the longtime head of the Moscow-based Federal AIDS Center, who estimated that at least another 500,000 cases of H.I.V. have gone undiagnosed.
Although the label “epidemic” prompts denials from some senior officials, experts on the front lines like Mr. Pokrovsky are calling it just that. The overall estimate of victims constitutes about 1 percent of Russia’s population of 143 million, enough to be considered an epidemic, they argued. Beyond that, they said that heterosexual sex would soon top intravenous drug use as the main means of infection.
“This can already be considered a threat to the entire nation,” Mr. Pokrovsky said, noting that the caseload is increasing by about 10 percent a year. In 2016, 100,000 new infections are anticipated, about 275 daily. It is the largest H.I.V. epidemic in Europe and among the highest rates of infection globally.
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