Originally published April 10 2005
As Russian HIV epidemic spreads; government takes too long to acknowledge crisis
by Mike Adams, the Health Ranger, NaturalNews Editor
International organizations have long pressured the Russian government to acknowledge the urgent problem with HIV infection in that country, but the government has sidestepped the issue, while providing only minimal funds for AIDS education and treatment. Deputy Prime Minister Aleksandr Zukov has now told an international conference that the Russian AIDS epidemic now threatens national security. Russia had 11,000 cases of HIV in 1998, a number that has jumped almost 30-fold in the past seven years to 300,000 cases. Unofficial estimates are that the actual number of HIV patients in Russia is 1.5 million. Health experts want the Russians to adopt the methods used by other countries fighting HIV epidemics, such as education for young people.
Global experts and doctors working in Russia have long complained that when it came to the HIV/AIDS crisis, the Kremlin was living in denial.
But yesterday, Deputy Prime Minister Aleksandr Zhukov finally broke the government's silence, telling an international conference in Moscow that the AIDS epidemic in Russia has gone beyond a medical problem and is now a threat to the country's national security.
According to unofficial estimates, which many experts believe are closer to the truth, the actual number of HIV sufferers in Russia is closer to 1.5 million -- 1 percent of the population.
Yelena Tamazova heads the Moscow office of the Joint United Nations Program on HIV/AIDS.
She tells RFE/RL the situation is so serious that it has finally forced the government to acknowledge the problem.
But she believes an even larger epidemic can still be avoided."According to official statistics, the number of people living with the HIV virus in Russia, in March 2005, was 314,000.
This is not a secret, and that is why the government is now paying attention to this problem, because it can no longer be ignored."
Yesterday's conference in Moscow brought together medical specialists, government representatives, and business leaders.
Zurabov said the agreement will enable Russian patients to be treated at one-seventh the cost of current medications, allowing doctors to help many more sufferers.
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