HIV/AIDS in Russia. USSR[edit] The first officially documented case of HIV in Russia (then the USSR) was diagnosed in March, 1987 [1].
In 1984, one patient had been diagnosed with HIV by a Soviet doctor, however, the record of her case was expunged. Prior to the diagnosis made in 1987, the Soviet Union denied that any HIV infections were occurring within its territory. Doctors were pressured to misdiagnose cases of HIV and AIDS as other ailments, and the government failed to take any steps to protect or warn the public about the nature of the disease and how to prevent its spread. The policy of denial and repression of HIV diagnoses not only inhibited an effective government response to the epidemic, but also inhibited the recording of accurate statistics. Russian Federation[edit] One of the major areas in which the project intended to combat the spread of HIV was through interventions targeted at high risk sectors of the population. See also[edit] Health in Russia References[edit] External links[edit]
HIV and AIDS in Russia, Eastern Europe & Central Asia. Affected populations Injecting drug use paraphernalia in Russia The regional epidemic is currently concentrated among injecting drug users (IDUs), sex workers and their sexual partners.
Drug users The rise of HIV in the region is closely linked with increasing rates of injecting drug use that developed in the mid-1990s during the socioeconomic crisis that followed the break-up of the Soviet Union. At this time, nearby Afghanistan became the world’s largest producer of opium, from which heroin is derived, and drug trafficking increased throughout the region. Sharing of contaminated drug taking equipment is a highly efficient HIV transmission route. In Estonia, HIV prevalence among IDUs is estimated at 50 percent, and at 20 percent in Ukraine. It has been reported that around 16 percent of IDUs in Tajikistan and 8 percent in Uzbekistan are infected with HIV. Sex workers Sexual partners of risk groups Other affected groups Prisoners Children and young adults Prevention Russia Ukraine Central Asia.
New York Times Examines Russia's "Inadequate Fight" Against HIV/AIDS - The Body. Russia's HIV/AIDS epidemic "has defied worldwide trends, expanding more rapidly year by year than almost anywhere else," the New York Times writes in an article that examines how the country has become "one of the world's low points in the effort to fight the spread of HIV," in large part due to the government's failure to reach out to injecting drug users (IDUs) and sex workers -- the groups "at the heart" of the epidemic.
"Nearly 60,000 new cases of HIV ... were documented in Russia in 2009, an 8 percent increase from 2008, according to UNAIDS," the newspaper writes. "Of those new cases, more than 60 percent were believed to have been caused by intravenous drug use, and many of the others were believed to have been infected through sex with addicts. " Yet, as the newspaper notes, little to no resources for HIV prevention are put towards these populations. Advertisement Back to other news for January 2011 This information was reprinted from kff.org with permission from the Henry J.