Is there an HIV epidemic in Russia? High risk regions. The UN called Russia the epicenter of the global HIV epidemic
TASS-DOSIER. From May 15 to May 21, 2017, the All-Russian Action "Stop HIV/AIDS" will be held in Russia for the third time. It is organized by the Foundation for Social and Cultural Initiatives (the President of the Foundation is the wife of the Prime Minister of the Russian Federation Svetlana Medvedeva). The action is supported by the Ministry of Health, the Ministry of Education and Science, the Ministry of Communications of Russia, Rosmolodezh, Rospotrebnadzor, as well as the Union of Rectors of Russia, leading state universities of the Russian Federation and the Russian Orthodox Church.
It is dedicated to the World AIDS Day of Remembrance, which is held annually on the third Sunday of May. Its goal is to draw attention to this problem in Russia, to raise awareness of the population, especially young people, about the disease.
Campaign "Stop HIV/AIDS"
The all-Russian action "Stop HIV/AIDS" began to be held in Russia in 2016. The key event of the first action, which took place in May, was an open student forum. The second action was timed to the World AIDS Day (December 1) and took place at the end of November. It started at the II All-Russian Forum for specialists in the prevention and treatment of the disease (November 28).
As part of the action, an open lesson "Knowledge - Responsibility - Health" was held in senior secondary schools, where a film was shown on topical issues of combating HIV infection.
HIV/AIDS disease
The human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) attacks the immune system and weakens the body's defenses against a wide range of infections and diseases, including some types of cancer. HIV-infected people gradually develop immunodeficiency.
The last stage of the disease that develops when infected with the human immunodeficiency virus is AIDS (acquired immunodeficiency syndrome), when the human body loses the ability to defend itself against infections and tumors. In different people, AIDS can develop 2-15 years after HIV infection.
There is no cure for HIV infection. However, with antiretroviral treatment, the virus can be controlled and transmission prevented. This facilitates and prolongs the life of those infected with the infection.
Statistics for Russia
The epidemiological situation of HIV infection in Russia (the first case was detected in 1987) is unfavorable, cases of the disease have been identified in all regions of the Russian Federation.
According to Rospotrebnadzor, as of December 31, 2016, since 1987, 1 million 114 thousand 815 cases of HIV infection have been registered among citizens of the Russian Federation, of which 243 thousand 863 people have died. Thus, at the beginning of 2017, 870,952 Russians were living with HIV/AIDS in Russia, which is 0.59% of the total population of the country (146,804,372). As of December 31, 2016, the prevalence of HIV was 594.3 people with an established diagnosis per 100,000 of the country's population.
The number of newly diagnosed HIV infections in the country continues to rise. According to Rospotrebnadzor, in 2011-2016. the annual growth averaged 10%. In 2016, the territorial centers for the prevention and control of AIDS registered 103,438 new cases of HIV infection (excluding those identified anonymously and foreign citizens) - 5.3% more than in 2015 (95,475).
High prevalence of HIV is observed in the 30 largest subjects of the Russian Federation, where 45.3% of the country's population lives. The most unfavorable regions, where the number of people living with HIV exceeds 1 thousand people per 100 thousand population, are Sverdlovsk (1648 per 100 thousand population), Irkutsk (1636), Kemerovo (1583), Samara (1477), Orenburg (1217) regions, Khanty-Mansi Autonomous Okrug (1202), Leningrad (1147), Tyumen (1085), Chelyabinsk (1079) and Novosibirsk (1022) regions.
A high level of HIV infection in the Russian Federation is observed in the age group from 30 to 39 years. Among young people (15-20 years old), more than 1.1 thousand people with HIV infection are registered annually. Cases of infection of children during breastfeeding continue to be detected: in 2014, 41 children were infected, in 2015 - 47 children, in 2016 - 59.
In 2016, 675,403 patients (77.5% of all those living with a diagnosis of HIV/AIDS) were registered at the dispensary in specialized medical organizations. Of these, 285,920 patients received antiretroviral therapy (42.3% of those registered).
HIV/AIDS in the world
Some scientists believe that HIV was transmitted from monkeys to humans as early as the 1920s. The first victim of this disease may have been a man who died in 1959 in the Congo. This conclusion was reached by doctors who later analyzed his medical history.
For the first time, the symptoms of the disease, characteristic of HIV/AIDS, were described in 1981 during a survey in clinics in Los Angeles and New York of several men of non-traditional sexual orientation. In 1983, researchers from the US and France described a virus capable of causing HIV/AIDS. Since 1985, blood tests for HIV have been available in clinical laboratories.
According to the World Health Organization, at the end of 2015, there were from 34 to 39.8 million (36.7 million on average) HIV-infected people in the world. Sub-Saharan Africa is the most affected region, with an estimated 25.6 million people living with HIV in 2015 (about two-thirds of those infected). More than 35 million people have become victims of HIV/AIDS worldwide. In 2015 alone, approximately 1.1 million people died. As of June 2016, 18.2 million patients had access to antiretroviral treatment, including 910,000 children.
Of all countries in the world, the highest growth rate in the number of new cases of HIV infection (human immunodeficiency virus) was recorded in Russia. Deborah Burks, coordinator of global AIDS programs, said this in her speech at the US State Department on the occasion of World AIDS Day celebrated annually on December 1st. She said that "the largest increase in the number of new HIV infections worldwide is observed in Russia due to the lack of response in the fight against the breadth and depth of the epidemic in the country."
She did not provide any figures or data to support her words. However, official statistics confirm these words of the representative of the US State Department. At the beginning of 2017, there were about 36.7 million people living with HIV in the world, mostly in developing countries, including countries in Africa. Russia accounts for about 900,000 of them, according to official statistics. The real figures in the Russian Federation, according to domestic experts,.
In 2016, 1.8 million new infections were recorded worldwide, in other words, about five thousand people are infected with HIV every day on the planet - one every 17 seconds. In Russia, the annual increase in the number of new cases of infection with the virus averages 10%: in 2014 - 89808 cases of new infections, in 2015 - 98232 people newly infected, in 2016 - 103438 cases. And this year will be no exception. Mortality from HIV infection, according to Rosstat, in Russia is also growing annually: in 2014 - 12540 deaths, in 2015 - 15520, in 2016 - 18575 deaths.
The World Health Organization (WHO), which has been keeping regional HIV statistics since the 1980s, when data collection and analysis began, reports that the total number of people infected in the European Region has reached 2,167,684, including 1,114,815 cases registered in Russia.
Over the past year, according to WHO, in the European Region, 160 thousand new cases This is the maximum in the history of observations. The European region is the only one where the number of new infections is on the rise. But this does not mean that these threatening data refer to Europe. WHO statistics "for the European Region" unites 53 countries with a population of almost 900 million people - in addition to the countries of the European Economic Area (EU / EEA), this also includes Azerbaijan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Russia.
In the EU countries themselves, only 29,000 new HIV infections were recorded last year. Russia is spoiling the "European statistics", since out of the total regional figure of 160 thousand, more than 103 thousand cases are in our country.
A joint report by the WHO and the European Center for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) says this is the highest number of cases reported in a single year. "If the trend continues, we will miss our target of ending the spread of the HIV epidemic by 2030," says Zsuzsanna Jakab, WHO Regional Director for Europe.
In Russia, the highest incidence rates were also noted in 2016 - 70.6 cases per 100,000 population, in Ukraine this figure is 33.7 per 100 thousand, in Belarus - 25.2, in Moldova - 20.5. The number of newly diagnosed HIV infections in Russia and Ukraine is 73% of the number of infections in the European Region and 92% of the total in the east of the European Region.
In 2014, more than 142,000 new cases of HIV infection were recorded in the European Region (of which 89,808 cases were in the Russian Federation), in 2015 - 153,407 (of which 98,232 were in the Russian Federation). By the end of 2017, there will also be at least 100 thousand new infected people in Russia, Vadim Pokrovsky, head of the Federal Scientific and Methodological Center for the Prevention and Control of AIDS, is convinced.
According to him, the number of deaths due to HIV-positive status is also growing. "Last year, 18.5 thousand people, according to Rosstat, died precisely from AIDS (acquired immunodeficiency syndrome). In fact, more than 30 thousand people died with HIV, but why the remaining 15 thousand died is a question that needs to be studied," Pokrovsky said.
It cannot be said that the increase in the incidence rate is decreasing in Russia, one can only speak of a decrease in the increase in new cases. "We do not reduce growth, but as it was, it remains such, it is added," says Vadim Pokrovsky, head of the scientific and methodological Center for the Prevention and Control of AIDS.
Since 2016, the Ministry of Health has taken into account only non-anonymous infected people - those who have been tested in state medical institutions with a passport and an insurance certificate in their hands. There were 86,800 such people in 2016 compared to 100,000 in 2015. And taking into account anonymous analyzes, Rospotrebnadzor counted 125,000 new cases of laboratory confirmation of HIV infection in 2016. Thus, the Ministry of Health closed its eyes to at least 20% of those infected. And a large part of HIV-infected people is not yet aware of their diagnosis, since the latent form can last 10-20 years.
At the same time, there is not enough money in the state budget for the treatment of HIV / AIDS. WHO recommends immunodeficiency virus suppressive antiretroviral therapy (ARV) to all those diagnosed with HIV, while in Russia, ARV therapy coverage is 46% of 650,000 people with HIV registered by the Ministry of Health, or 33% of 900,000 living carriers of the virus registered by the Ministry of Health. Rospotrebnadzor as of the end of 2016.
State strategy of the Russian Federation to combat HIV: there is no prevention, only those who are already infected are identified
Recall that the state strategy to counter the spread of HIV, adopted by the Ministry of Health of the Russian Federation, set the task of bringing the coverage of antiretroviral therapy (ARV), which suppresses the immunodeficiency virus, to 90% of all infected by 2020 - this would stop the epidemic.
However, it is not easy for Russian citizens to receive such treatment, and in the countryside it is completely unrealistic, medicines given to patients are far from the most modern, with a large number of side effects and mostly generics - medicines that differ in composition from the original medicine both in the amount of active substance and by its quality.
In February 2015, due to the unfavorable dynamics of the spread of HIV infection in the Russian Federation, the Ministry of Health developed an AIDS response strategy until 2020. Officials planned to reduce prices for drugs vital to the infected through import substitution and the creation of cheaper Russian analogues.
But the Russian drug for the treatment of HIV will be registered at best only in 5-10 years, TASS reports. The development of the domestic gene therapy drug Dinavir, which is being developed by a group of scientists from the Central Research Institute of Epidemiology of Rospotrebnadzor, is now only at the stage of preclinical trials.
As for existing medicines, Vadim Pokrovsky, head of the Scientific and Methodological Center for the Prevention and Control of AIDS, says that only a quarter of patients receive them.
Despite the fact that the government of the Russian Federation in April announced an increase in spending on the fight against AIDS, only 60,000 people will feel the positive effect - "a drop of water on a hot stone," Pokrovsky believes.
In general, according to him, there are no pre-exposure prophylaxis programs (PrEP) in Russia, when antiretroviral drugs are taken by people with a potentially high risk of contracting HIV. There are no funds for this, because there are not enough medicines even for already infected citizens. Against this background, the only concept that works and is officially approved in Russia is the “test and treat” strategy, recalls Medvestnik. “Prevention should prevent infection, and we are identifying those who are already infected, and every year more and more. At the same time, next year the State Duma is going to reduce the budget for the treatment of HIV infection from 17.5 to 16.5 billion rubles. Therefore, it is not surprising that that our epidemic is on the rise," Pokrovsky said.
“The Russian state does not stand on ceremony with those who criticize it. As soon as Pokrovsky complained about the insufficiently active fight against the epidemic, the Ministry of Health deprived the Federal AIDS Center in June of this year of state funds under a far-fetched pretext. Non-governmental organizations also face an increased number of obstacles. Many of them are forced to curtail their work, since, according to the law that came out in 2012, they are required to register as "foreign agents," recalls the Swiss newspaper Neue Zuercher Zeitung... By the way, in Switzerland the situation is almost stable - in 2016, the virus was detected in 539 people there, in 2015 - 537.
Sex between men remains a major mode of HIV transmission
Despite the existence of specialized prevention programs in many European countries, sex between men continues to be the predominant mode of HIV transmission in the European Economic Area (EU/EEA).
In all previous years, cases of diagnosing HIV infection among men who have sex with men have grown at an alarming rate - from 30% in 2005 to 42% in 2014.
According to acting Director of the European Center for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) Andrea Ammon, to reduce these statistics, it is necessary to adopt new strategies, such as pre-exposure prophylaxis for HIV infection (PrEP) and access to health care for EU citizens living in other countries.
In Russia, the official statistics are different: 40% of all HIV-infected people are people of traditional sexual orientation, from 55% to 60% of those infected were infected as a result of drug use, and only less than 2% were infected through homosexual contacts.
However, these figures are again far from reality due to the fact that in Russia, due to the high level of condemnation, gays cannot even tell doctors that they had same-sex contacts. “In AIDS centers there is a system of codes that are assigned to different groups. For men who have sex with men, this is 103. But they are given other codes, for example 105 (persons with promiscuity). And in this way gays replenish the statistics of the heterosexual path But according to studies by public organizations, every sixth gay in Russia is already infected," Yevgeny Pisemsky, head of the Phoenix Plus NGO in Oryol, told Radio Liberty.
"Specialists in AIDS centers are well aware of such underestimated statistics. But they are always under the sword of Damocles of the law on the so-called propaganda among minors and interpret it in such a way that "just in case, we will not even mention it, otherwise we will be accused of propaganda homosexuality. But only real numbers could convince society that the problem exists," says Pisemsky.
According to the Open Institutes of Health Foundation, the results of a 2017 biobehavioral study show that the average prevalence of HIV infection among gay men in Russia is 18% (in Moscow - 13%, in St. Petersburg - 24%, in Yekaterinburg - 16%).
According to Pisemsky, the state will not be able to fight HIV without recognizing that it is in this risk group that it spreads very quickly. This means that no prevention is carried out in this environment, and gays themselves receive a deceptive confidence that the HIV problem does not concern them.
Every second HIV-infected person is diagnosed at a late stage
Nearly half of HIV infections across the European Region, which includes Russia, are diagnosed at a late stage, increasing the risk of ill health, death and HIV transmission.
The large number of AIDS cases in Russia and other Eastern European countries is evidence that late diagnosis, late initiation of antiretroviral therapy and low treatment coverage contribute to the development of the disease, the World Health Organization notes.
HIV/AIDS surveillance data from 2016 suggests that the likelihood of late diagnosis increases with age. For example, 65% (63% in the EU/EEA) of people over 50 in the European Region were diagnosed with HIV at a late stage.
Testing for HIV infection for certain diseases, such as other sexually transmitted infections, viral hepatitis, tuberculosis and some types of cancer, can improve the quality of diagnosis.
According to Russian statistics, more than half (51%) of registered cases of HIV infection are diagnosed at a late stage of the disease.
Thanks to HIV statistics, it is possible to track the number of people who suffer from this disease and, on this basis, to prepare preventive and curative measures. The problem of HIV in Russia is very urgent. Recently, there has been a real HIV epidemic in Russia, which requires the correct development of methods for treating pathology.
With untimely treatment of pathology, the rapid development of AIDS in the world is observed. The disease is characterized by gradual progression and spread among the population. Statistics show that HIV is spreading rapidly around the world. The degree of development of HIV in countries directly depends on their economic, moral and social development. In Eastern Europe and Central Asia, the prevalence of the disease is at its highest level. Latin America is in second place. The third adult HIV prevalence by country is found in North America and Western and Central Europe.
The HIV statistics in Russia are deplorable. Officially, this disease is diagnosed in one million 200 thousand people. The number of HIV-infected people is increasing against the background of a variety of addictions - drug addiction, alcoholism. Among the countries of the world, HIV in Russia is diagnosed quite often.
The level of HIV incidence in Russia by city is quite high. People who live in St. Petersburg, Moscow, etc. suffer most often from the virus.
The main thing about the prevention of HIV and AIDS infection
In order to stop AIDS in Russia, it is necessary to carry out its prevention in a timely manner. To reduce the number of people infected with HIV in Russia , several directions are recommended. In order to limit the development of HIV infection in Russia, it is recommended to limit the amount of vertical transmission of pathology.
Vaccines are used to fight and prevent various infectious diseases. In order to reduce the spread of AIDS in Russia, it is also necessary to use vaccination. But, unfortunately, to date, an effective preventive method has not been developed.
In most cases, the pathological process is transmitted sexually. That is why a variety of educational programs are being developed that teach people the correct sexual behavior. They argue that by excluding sexual intercourse without barrier contraception with untested partners, the amount of infection is significantly reduced.
A variety of educational programs are quite effective. They talk about the features of the course of the pathological process, as well as its complications. Programs are built on training and support methods, which make it possible to reduce the individual risk of infection.
The type of contact directly affects the risk of contracting the disease. It can be sexual - vaginal and anal. The infection is also transmitted through injections. That is why it is often diagnosed in people who regularly take drugs. Quite rarely, an accidental infection with an infection that enters through the wounds on the human body is diagnosed.
During the period of prevention of the pathological process, it is recommended to take into account the fact of vulnerability. This group includes people who, under various circumstances, cannot protect themselves from infection. In this case, constant monitoring of events in a person's life is recommended. This greatly increases the possibility of dangerous contacts and human infection.
The occurrence of pathology is diagnosed only upon contact with an infected person. Through contact with animals and insects, HIV infection is impossible. The infection is found in various fluids - vaginal secretions, blood, breast milk, semen. That is why there are three ways of infection:
- Through the blood. Transfusion of this fluid, transplantation of tissues and organs are common causes of infection. The disease can be diagnosed when using a non-sterile instrument during medical manipulations and cosmetic procedures. If a person uses non-sterile syringes to inject drugs, then this can cause pathology.
- From mother to child. When a child passes through the birth canal of an infected mother during the childbearing process, this can cause illness. One of the ways of transmission of infection is breastfeeding a newborn baby.
- Unprotected sexual contact. Transmission of infection is observed not only in heterosexual, but also in homosexuality.
People should remember that HIV is not transmitted by contact, through household items, food and money. With the simultaneous use of common personal belongings and premises, the development of the pathological process is not observed.
HIV infection is a rather severe infectious process, which is quite difficult to treat. The disease can lead to a variety of undesirable effects, one of which is death. That is why the prevention of pathology should be carried out regularly.
Statistics
The HIV statistics are frightening. As of January 1, 2017, the number of HIV-infected people in Russia was 870,952 people. In accordance with HIV statistics in Russia, the disease is most often diagnosed in patients whose age is 30-39 years old - men and 25-29 years old - women. In recent years, there has been a more frequent diagnosis of the pathological process in adolescence and adolescence.
Official HIV and AIDS statistics in Russia show the number of deaths that occur with the disease. In the previous year, 30,550 deaths were registered. In Russia, HIV statistics annually give figures that are dynamically increasing.
If we consider HIV in Russia by region, the disease is most often diagnosed in the Sverdlovsk region. In second place is the Irkutsk region, and in the third place is the Kemerovo region. Further, according to the degree of reduction in the spread of infection, HIV statistics indicate the following areas:
- Chelyabinsk;
- Novosibirsk;
- Ulyanovsk, etc.
The percentage of HIV-infected people in Russia is constantly increasing. HIV statistics in Russian cities provides information that the pathology develops most often in Moscow, St. Petersburg, Sverdlovsk, Kemerovo, Chelyabinsk, Kaliningrad, etc. A sufficient number of HIV patients is in Ulyanovsk and Novosibirsk. The leaders in the spread of HIV infection in Russia are such cities as Orenburg and Tyumen. The incidence is quite intensively increasing in Tyumen and Samara.
With untimely treatment of the pathological process, people often die. This year, 243,863 people died of AIDS. Top Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome rating opens Tyva and Mordovia. Mortality and birth rate of affected children is constantly increasing.
How many people have AIDS in Russia directly depends on the age, region of residence and lifestyle of the person.
conclusions
The number of AIDS patients in Russia is constantly increasing. Among residents of various countries, HIV prevalence is observed in the adult population. The disease is diagnosed most often in people who lead an immoral lifestyle. Country statistics confirm that AIDS is more common in immunocompromised people.
There are 1,114,815 registered cases of the disease in our country. At the same time, a constant registration of new identified cases of HIV infection is carried out. There are 700,000 deaths per million infected. Every fifth person infected with HIV dies. Treatment of patients with HIV should be given due attention.
To reduce the growth of new cases of infection, it is recommended to carry out the prevention of the disease in a timely manner. In this case, it is necessary to limit unverified sexual contacts between men and women. The most disadvantaged are recommended to be trained with the help of special educational programs. This will reduce the total number of carriers of the infection. To fight HIV, the patient must seek help from a doctor who, after an appropriate diagnosis, will prescribe adequate treatment.
According to the report announced at the Fifth International Conference on HIV, held in March 2016 in Moscow, the following ranking of 10 countries was compiled by the number of people infected with AIDS. The incidence of AIDS in these countries is so high that it has the status of an epidemic.
AIDS Acquired immune deficiency syndrome secondary to HIV infection. It is the last stage of the disease of an HIV-infected person, accompanied by the development of infection, tumor manifestations, general weakness, and ultimately leads to death. 
1.2 million patients with 14 million population. Therefore, it is not surprising that the average life expectancy there is 38 years.
9th place. Russia
In 2016, the number of people infected with AIDS in Russia exceeded 1 million people according to Russian health care, 1.4 million according to the EECAAC-2016 report. Moreover, the number of infected in the last few years has been growing rapidly. For example: every 50th inhabitant of Yekaterinburg is HIV-positive.
In Russia, more than half of patients became infected through a needle while injecting a drug. This way of infection is not the main one for any country in the world. Why exactly in Russia such statistics? Many say it was driven by the move away from oral methadone as a substitute for injecting drugs.
Many mistakenly believe that the problem of infection of drug addicts is only their problem, it is not so scary if the "dregs of society" acquire diseases that lead to death. A person who uses drugs is not a monster that can be easily identified in a crowd. He leads a completely normal life for a long time. Therefore, spouses and children of drug addicts are often infected. There are cases when infection occurs in clinics, beauty salons after poor disinfection of instruments.
Until society realizes the real threat, until random partners stop assessing the presence of STDs “by eye”, until the government changes its attitude towards drug addicts, we will rapidly rise in this rating.
8th place. Kenya
6.7% of the population of this former English colony are HIV carriers, namely 1.4 million people. Moreover, among women, the infection is higher, since in Kenya the social level of the female population is low. Perhaps the rather free manners of Kenyan women also play a role - they easily approach sex here.
7th place. Tanzania
Of the 49 million people in this African country, just over 5% (1.5 million) have AIDS. There are areas in which the infection rate exceeds 10%: this is Njobe, far from the tourist routes, and the capital of Tanzania, Dar es Salaam.
6th place. Uganda
The government of this country is making great efforts to combat the problem of HIV. For example, if in 2011 there were 28 thousand children born with HIV, then in 2015 - 3.4 thousand. The number of new infections in the adult population has also decreased by 50%. The 24-year-old king of Toro (one of the regions of Uganda) took control of the epidemic into his own hands and promised to stop the epidemic by 2030. There are one and a half million cases in this country.
5th place. Mozambique
More than 10% of the population (1.5 million people) are infected with HIV, and the country does not have its own forces to fight the disease. About 0.6 million children in this country are orphans due to the death of their parents from AIDS.
4th place. Zimbabwe
1.6 million infected per 13 million inhabitants. Such figures have led to widespread prostitution, lack of basic knowledge about contraception and general poverty.
3rd place. India
Official figures are about 2 million patients, unofficial ones are much higher. Traditional Indian society is quite closed, many people ignore health problems. Educational work with young people is practically not carried out, it is unethical to talk about condoms in schools. Hence the almost complete illiteracy in matters of protection, which distinguishes this country from the countries of Africa, where getting condoms is not a problem. According to surveys, 60% of Indian women have never heard of AIDS.
2nd place. Nigeria
3.4 million HIV patients per 146 million population, less than 5% of the population. The number of infected women is higher than men. Since there is no free medicine in the country, the most terrible situation is in the poor segments of the population.
1 place. South Africa
The country with the highest incidence of AIDS. Approximately 15% of the population is infected with the virus (6.3 million). About a quarter of high school girls already have HIV. Life expectancy is 45 years. Imagine a country where few people have grandparents. Scary? Although South Africa is recognized as the most economically developed country in Africa, most of the population lives below the poverty line. The government is doing a lot of work to stop the spread of AIDS, providing free condoms and testing. However, the poor are convinced that AIDS is a white invention, as are condoms, and therefore both should be avoided.
Bordering South Africa, Swaziland is a country of 1.2 million people, half of whom are HIV positive. The average resident of Swaziland does not live up to 37 years.
Ten regions of Russia are in critical condition in terms of HIV prevalence. This was stated by the Minister of Health of the Russian Federation Veronika Skvortsova. The sad list is headed by the Sverdlovsk and Kemerovo regions.
“HIV is spread very unevenly across the country,” the head of the Ministry of Health noted. “The prevalence is significantly higher, several times higher, in those regions through which drug trafficking routes pass. Therefore, there are 10 critical regions out of 85. In the first place is the Sverdlovsk region, Yekaterinburg, which got (in connection with this) to the press," said Skvortsova.
According to the minister, "57% of all sources of HIV infection are injections, usually among heroin addicts." As for such a traditional risk group as homosexuals, this trend is less pronounced in Russia.
“40% of cases of sexually transmitted infections relate to heterosexual couples,” Skvortsova said, stressing that the increase in the number of infections is due to well-off women who have picked up the virus from their own husband.
According to the Federal Center for Prevention and Control of AIDS, at the end of last year the list of the most HIV-affected regions was as follows: areas.
During the year, anonymous testing was conducted in problem regions, which was passed by 23.5 thousand young people under 30 years old. Among them, 2.3% of HIV-infected people were identified.
In early November, the Ministry of Health of Yekaterinburg announced that every 50th inhabitant of the city had AIDS.
“We have an infection rate of 1,826 people per hundred thousand, which is 1.8% of the city’s population, 26,693 thousand infected,” said Tatyana Savinova, deputy head of the Yekaterinburg city health department. “And these are only known cases, the real incidence is even higher,” she stressed.
But this situation in Yekaterinburg has been developing for decades, so doctors do not make announcements about the beginning of the epidemic, the city health department emphasized.
According to the criteria of WHO and the Joint United Nations Program on HIV, more than 1% of those infected means that the infection is firmly rooted in the population and its spread is practically independent of risk groups.
Meanwhile, the Federal Center for Prevention and Control of AIDS believes that Russia is now on the verge of transition to the third, last stage of the HIV epidemic.
"An epidemic is a relative concept. There are three stages of HIV. Initial - the first cases are imported from abroad. The second is concentrated, risk groups are affected. We now have 10% of men who have sex with men and 20% of drug addicts are infected. And when more than 1% of pregnant women are infected, then it is generalized. Here we are now at the stage of transition from the second to the third, "Vadim Pokrovsky, head of the center, academician of the Russian Academy of Medical Sciences, told the L!fe portal.
