AEGiS-AP: Russian AIDS Expert Says Government Not Doing Enough

Important note: Information in this article was accurate in 2003. The state of the art may have changed since the publication date.

Russian AIDS Expert Says Government Not Doing Enough

Associated Press - December 1, 2003

MOSCOW (AP)--Russia's top AIDS expert on Monday accused the government of not doing enough to prevent the spread of the disease, which is snowballing in Russia.

Over 257,000 HIV cases, more than 7,500 of which involve children, have been registered in all but one of Russia's 89 regions, Russian officials said Monday, which was World AIDS Day.

But Vadim Pokrovsky, head of the Health Ministry's AIDS Prevention and Treatment Center, had estimated that the actual infection rate was much higher -from 700,000 to 1.5 million.

"We are not sure that the government realizes how great the problem is," Pokrovsky said Monday. "In general, the activity of our government is not very serious, the budget for this year was very small."

AIDS is rampant in Russia, where it appeared later than in other countries, but then spread rapidly due to weak anti-drug and prevention programs. The HIV rate per capita has increased drastically over the past two years from 121 per 100,000 in 2001 to 157 per 100,000 in early 2003, according to Russian news agencies.

HIV and AIDS cases in Russia used to involve mainly drug addicts and homosexuals, but heterosexual transmission has been on the rise lately.

Professor Lars Kallings, a U.N. special envoy dealing with HIV/AIDS, said that is leading to more cases involving women and HIV-infected newborns.

Pokrovsky had previously stated that the most affected Russian regions are the Urals and Siberia, while Russia's chief epidemiologist Gennady Onishchenko said the highest HIV rates were in the Moscow region and the former imperial capital of St. Petersburg, where there are 20,800 HIV cases. Moscow alone has registered 15,000 HIV cases.

The disease is also sweeping Russian prisons. Approximately 36,000 inmates, 95% of whom are drug addicts, have HIV, the Interfax news agency quoted a Justice Ministry official as saying on Monday. "Unfortunately, the HIV rate is growing by 15-20% a year in the correctional system," Deputy Justice Minister Yury Kalinin said according to Interfax.
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