Important note: Information in this article was accurate in 2002. The state of the art may have changed since the publication date.
Important note: Information in this article was accurate in 2002. The state of the art may have changed since the publication date.
Reuters NewMedia - Wednesday, November 27, 2002
Ron Popeski
Vadim Pokrovsky, head of Russia's official AIDS center, said the official number of HIV-infection cases now topped 220,000, though public awareness remained low with only a relatively small number of actual AIDS sufferers. He urged authorities to devote more attention and money to the problem.
Pokrovsky said the real number of HIV cases probably stood at about a million, with many likely to die within a decade.
"We know that within 10-11 years, as these people became infected maybe five years ago...no fewer than half of those infected will die," he told a news conference ahead of World Aids Day on December 1. "That means a minimum of half a million dead. And possibly even a million deaths."
Pokrovsky said that while the rate of infection had slowed in the past year -- 40,000 new cases this year against 87,000 in 2001 -- Russia still faced vast problems, with an annual budget of $6 million far short of what was needed. But only about 800 people had actually been diagnosed as having AIDS.
"The problem is still on the rise even if the rate has fallen. That gives no grounds for optimism because it is clear that what we are doing in Russia is insufficient," he said.
The problem was not one of funds, he said, but of priorities. "Recently we were told the former president of Russia (Boris Yeltsin) receives an annual allowance of $2 million. Whether or not this is needed is not for me to say," he said.
Pokrovsky has led attempts to draw attention to the rise in HIV infection as well as the high incidence of diseases long eradicated in the West, like syphilis.
Russia's Justice Ministry said that some 36,000 inmates out of a million-strong prison population were infected with HIV.
Pokrovsky said earlier this year that rising HIV infection rates made AIDS a more frightening phenomenon in Russia than in Africa, because of the country's declining birth rate.
He said Wednesday that drug use remained the most common source of infection at about 80 percent, but sexual transmission cases had risen to 11 percent from four percent.
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