Russia has one of the world’s highest HIV rates, with about 1 per cent of the country’s population believed to be infected. “The situation is getting worse,” said Vadim Pokrovsky, head of a federal research and prevention centre in Moscow that specialises in HIV and Aids. Behind the problem is a lack of information and limited treatment options. Sexual education of minors is a taboo, complicated by legislation. Russia’s Health Ministry claims there are about 900,000 people infected with HIV in the country. Pokrovsky believes the actual number is about 1.5 million.
In comparison, there are about 88,000 HIV infected people in Germany, about 0.1 per cent of the population, according to the federal Robert Koch Institute for disease control.
Far more than half of the new infections in Russia are due to sexual contact between men and women, Pokrovsky said, ahead of the awareness-raising World Aids Day on Sunday.
Last year there were 36,000 deaths among those infected with HIV in Russia — a record number since the first patients were registered in1987, back in the Soviet era.
Pokrovsky believes that spending on the treatment of HIV infected people in Russia is far too low, with 29 billion roubles ($450 million) expected next year.
At least three times that is needed, as Russia lacks modern medicines, diagnostic equipment and staff, according to Pokrovsky.
Two major European health agencies said on Thursday that there is a need for more testing and better methods on the continent as women with HIV are often diagnosed later than men.
More than 141,000 new cases of HIV were reported in Europe in 2018, of which about one third were women, according to a report. Earlier diagnosis means earlier treatment. This can contribute to reducing HIV transmission.
Over half of known HIV cases among women, 54 per cent, were diagnosed late, said the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control(ECDC), based near Stockholm, and the Copenhagen-based European office of the World Health Organization (WHO).
Sergei Abdurakhmanov, director of a charity-sponsored Aids Centre in Moscow, lamented the lack of medicine available in Russia.
More than a million people in Russia are HIV positive, and “unfortunately the number is continuing to increase,” Abdurakhmanov said.
Russian President Vladimir Putin described HIV as a “threat to national security” in a decree this year as the country struggles with overall population decline. — DPA
Ulf Mauder
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