30,000 Russians Contracted HIV/AIDS Since Start Of Year
Pastor Dale Morgan
30,000 Russians Contracted HIV/AIDS Since Start Of Year*
Intravenous drug use still accounts for the greater part of HIV/AIDS
transmissions in Russia.
by Staff Writers
Moscow (RIA Novosti) Nov 14, 2006
Some 30,000 people have contracted HIV, the virus causing AIDS, in
Russia since the beginning of this year, a Russian health agency said
Monday. "There are more than 400,000 registered HIV carriers in Russia
today, including some 30,000 infected this year," the Federal Service
for the Supervision of Consumer Rights and Human Welfare said in a news
release.
However, according to independent Russian experts and international
organizations, the actual number of HIV carriers in the country may be
close to a million.
In earlier reports, the agency, known by its Russian acronym
Rospotrebnadzor, said some 29,390 new HIV cases were detected in the
country between January and September 2006, a 5% increase, year-on-year.
More than 1,300 Russians, including 140 children, have died of AIDS
since the nation recorded its first official case in 1987. About 11,000
more HIV carriers have died over the period of causes not directly
related to the disease.
Rospotrebnadzor's chief, Gennady Onishchenko, said Monday that this year
has been a turning point in Russia's efforts to contain the spread of
HIV/AIDS. He hailed as momentous "the allocation of 200 million rubles
($7.5 million) in federal budget funds for HIV prevention programs," and
the launch of an ambitious government anti-AIDS project targeting
high-risk groups.
Intravenous drug use still accounts for the greater part of HIV/AIDS
transmissions in Russia, but infection through unprotected sex is
becoming increasingly common, with its share having grown to 45%, from
just 6% five years ago.
The Russian government has increased HIV spending 20-fold this year in
an effort to provide treatment for at least 15,000 of the country's
HIV-positive population, and to ensure more patients have access to
anti-retroviral drugs.
Russia put the issue at the top of its agenda when it took up the
presidency of the Group of Eight major industrialized nations for the
first half of 2006.
In the run-up to World AIDS Day December 1, Onishchenko instructed
Rospotrebnadzor's regional branches to step up their campaigns to raise
public HIV/AIDS awareness and to explain the objectives behind the
government's new nationwide project to curb the pandemic.