Important note: Information in this article was accurate in 1996. The state of the art may have changed since the publication date.
The Associated Press - Thursday, November 7, 1996.
About 800 new cases have been registered so far this year, compared to 190 in all of 1995, Irina Savchenko, an epidemiologist at the Russian Center against AIDS, told the Interfax news agency.
She said as many as 560 of the new cases were intravenous drug users who likely became infected by sharing needles.
"The process was very slow while homosexuals, prostitutes, etc., were spreading HIV," Savchenko said. "But when the disease enters the environment of drug addicts, it starts to spread like a forest fire."
"That is why we have grounds to speak of an HIV epidemic unfolding in Russia," she said.
According to official statistics, 1,925 people in Russia, including 282 children, have been registered as having AIDS since 1987 and 163 of them had died by early November. Actual figures are believed to be considerably higher.
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