Russia warns of AIDS epidemic - 1.3 million people infected

Russia's AIDS epidemic is worsening with as many as 1.3 million people infected with HIV as the virus spreads further into the heterosexual population, Russia's top AIDS specialist recently said. Russia has registered 402,000 people with HIV, of whom 17,000 have died, but the real figure is much higher, said Vadim Pokrovsky, head of Russia's federal AIDS centre. "Not only is the number of Russians infected with HIV rising but there is an increase in the rate at which the epidemic is spreading, so a rise in the number of newly infected," Pokrovsky told reporters. "We have an estimate of up to 1.2 million to 1.3 million infected with HIV," he said, adding that the number of those registered as infected was rising by 8 to 10 percent a year. The United Nations estimates 65 million people worldwide have been infected with HIV and that 25 million people have been killed by AIDS since it was first recognized in 1981. AIDS, which stands for Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome, is caused by the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV). "On average for the country, one out of every fifty males is infected with HIV but in some cities it is one in ten," he said. Russia's northern city of St Petersburg was worst affected followed by Sverdlovsk region, greater Moscow, Samara region and Moscow, though Pokrovsky said figures for Moscow were probably much higher than the data indicated.