Russia needs more awareness, cash to crush HIV epidemic

By Benedikt von Imhoff Nov 30, 2011, 14:53 GMT

Moscow - Alexander Savizky wants to change people's attitudes toward HIV and help patients with the deadly virus in Russia, where the subject of AIDS remains taboo despite a worsening epidemic.

'The government doesn't do anything,' says the 37-year-old, who has been living with HIV for 12 years, as he sips a double espresso in a Moscow cafe.

Russia's Federal AIDS centre put the total number of registered HIV cases in the country at over 500,000 in 2009 - but experts said the actual number was a much higher 940,000.

Although the government has sponsored programmes to extend medical assistance to patients, the United Nations says the lack of a national prevention strategy has allowed the epidemic to grow.

There were 45,000 new cases in 2007, 54,000 in 2008 and 47,000 in the period January-October 2009, the United Nations says.

The government needs to do more in the area of prevention for high risk groups like drug addicts, prostitutes, homosexuals and prisoners and to provide medical care for patients in rural areas.

Savizky, a former drug addict, got the virus through a contaminated needle.

Now he travels throughout Russia with the All-Russia Association of People Living with HIV/AIDS to raise awareness about the virus, give advice to patients and train therapists.

'People living in the countryside have no idea how to deal with it,' said Savizky, adding that many people turn to alcohol once they are diagnosed with HIV.

Vadim Pokrovsky of the Federal AIDS Centre says Russia's HIV epidemic is almost as bad as in some African countries in terms of how fast it is spreading. Many HIV patients find it almost impossible to lead normal lives because they feel ostracized, he added.

Pokrovsky echoed recommendations by experts that the government should do more on the prevention front.

'Information about 'safer sex' is not really welcomed by the authorities,' he said. 'The use of condoms goes against the government's plan to increase the birth rate. Politicians prefer traditional religious values, such as 'No sex before marriage'.'

A protest by HIV patients on World Aids Day on December 1 last year outside the main government building in Moscow against medicine shortages was dispersed by police and several people were detained. A similar protest is planned on Thursday.

The Federal Aids Centre estimates that some 150 people contract HIV every day in Russia, where 70 per cent of patients are less than 30 years old.

HIV is also spreading in former Soviet states. The Ukrainian port city of Odessa is considered the AIDS capital of Europe. About 150,000 of its one million residents are estimated to be HIV positive, though official statistics list only 11,000 cases.

The Russian government is starting to acknowledge the gravity of the problem. It has allocated 365 million dollars to strengthen the infrastructure of HIV/AIDS services over a four-year period starting in 2007.

It has also allocated over one billion dollars for the National Priority Project on Health, which in 2009 provided 300 million dollars to diagnosis and prevention programmes.

This has led to an increase in the number of patients receiving treatment. In 2009, some 72,000 patients received antiretroviral therapy (ART), a cocktail of drugs that help suppress the virus, compared with only 15,000 in 2006.

Pokrovsky says 100,000 HIV patients will have received ART treatment by the end of this year.

However, the main challenge for Russia's war against HIV is to raise awareness.

'Spending on information campaigns about HIV and AIDS must be significantly increased,' Povrovsky says.

HIV patient Savizky has little hope that the government will play a more active role in the fight against the virus.

'They have already said they will deal with it. But this has not happened,' he said.