AIDS Spreading In Russia At Alarming Pace

by Kester Kenn Klomegah

(IPS) MOSCOW -- Health experts and non-governmental organizations are warning of a rapid spread of HIV/AIDS in Russia.

Spread of the virus is rising particularly among up to four million Russians on drugs, they say.

The number of HIV-infected patients rose to more than 300,000 early this year from 270,000 last year, a more than 10 percent increase, says Natalya Ladnaya, senior researcher at the Federal AIDS Center. HIV/AIDS is spreading at an alarming pace in the18-29 age group, she said.

"Russia has among the highest rates of the spread of the AIDS epidemic," Ladnaya told IPS. She said the virus had spread initially through intravenous drug use, and was now spreading through sexual contact. More than 40 percent of the HIV cases reported this year have been young women infected through sexual contact.

"Youngsters in the mid-20s who are sexually active are most at risk, and this threatens Russia with a demographic catastrophe which is very dangerous for the economy," she said.

The rapid spread of HIV/AIDS has added to the burdens of Russia's public health service already reeling from the dissolution of the Soviet Union, says Vadim Pokrovsky who heads the Federal AIDS Center. Birth rates are low and average life expectancy has slumped. An average Russian male can expect to die before 60. That is far worse than European averages. The shrinking population has made the need to tackle HIV/AIDS more pressing.

Pokrovsky said official numbers refer only to cases registered with the authorities. Some independent estimates suggest that one percent of the Russian population, or between one and 1.5 million people, are now infected.

"It is quite likely that the epidemic will progress on the same pattern as in Africa, where HIV is contracted primarily through sex," Pokrovsky said at a news conference last week.

"We need to strongly influence and educate people to look after themselves," he said. "But if by 2010 Russian people are still becoming infected with HIV at the same rate each year, then this scenario suggests that there was insufficient will to change social behavior and attitude."

Health experts say that if the number of people affected with HIV (human immunodeficiency virus that causes AIDS) is increasing at this rapid rate, it poses a threat to the entire population. Some suggest that the figure could be ten times higher than official figures because many people do not know yet that they are infected.

"It is the concern of the State Duma to achieve some kind of understanding about the seriousness of the epidemic and its long-term possible consequences to society," Tatyana Yakovleva, a leading member of the parliamentary group on the prevention and fight against AIDS/HIV, told IPS.

Government officials say Russia has around four million people who regularly take drugs. The situation is becoming critical in the face of a growing drug subculture among the youth.

John Tedstrom, president of Transatlantic Partners Against AIDS says the AIDS epidemic in Russia has entered a dangerous stage. There are signs that it is moving into the general population, especially with the rise in other sexually transmitted infections among young heterosexuals, he said.

"If these trends continue, the HIV epidemic will quickly spin out of control," Tedstrom told IPS. Tedstrom's non-profit international organization which monitors HIV/AIDS in Russia and other ex-Soviet republics said in a recent report that some 1.5 million Russians are already infected.

The post-communist government has failed to publicly recognize these challenges or to adopt an adequate response strategy, he said, and given the growing security, economic and human implications of the virus for Russia, denial is no longer a viable option.

"It is time for the Russian government to meet the AIDS challenge with its own serious commitment to improve the lives of those already infected, and prevent the further spread of the disease," Tedstrom said.

A recent study suggested that more than half the population of Moscow has inaccurate information on HIV transmission. It found that more than 45 percent of Muscovites would support programs to isolate HIV-infected patients from the rest of society.

Safety campaigns in fact appear to have declined. Media advertisements and billboards promoting use of condoms have significantly disappeared from view.

"If Russia really wants to confront the disease, then it must make fighting AIDS a long-term project," Tedstrom said.

"The main agenda facing the country is how to increase or redirect resources to fight the disease," Yakovleva said. This effort must include a concerted attack on stigma and discrimination which cripple effective response, she said.

AIDS cannot be defeated by persecuting those most vulnerable to infection, she said. "It needs to include a massive scaling up of prevention efforts at all levels of the society, but this must focus especially on the youth, in order to reduce the high vulnerability of the young people, to enable and empower them to protect themselves against HIV infection through access to information and support services."