HIV exploding in Russia, a terrifying situation

Lounge
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MOSCOW - 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 said on Tuesday.
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, also 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 percent 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).
Most of those infected with HIV are unaware they are carrying the virus, according to the UN.
Spreading fast
Pokrovsky said HIV was high among Russia’s intravenous drug users but that many of those newly infected were not needle users. And he warned that the virus was spreading fast into the heterosexual population.
Women made up 44 percent of 39,589 registered new infections last year, he said adding that in some cities one in ten Russian males was infected with HIV.
“Evidence of the strengthening heterosexual HIV infection is the increase in the number of women among those newly registered with HIV,” :open_mouth: Pokrovsky said.
“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.
The United Nations said in a report published on Tuesday that HIV was higher in richer regions.

“HIV prevalence is in an inverse relationship to economic development: HIV is more widespread in ‘rich’ regions,” the UN said in a report about Russia’s regions.

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afigyet!!!

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It might be something said with the moral shift of capitalism to a country that was previously indentured to communism.

I’m not saying that a capitalistic society is bad (I love the USA), but when those who are oppressed are suddenly given freedom beyond anything they have ever experienced it could create social values that are less than healthy for themselves.

There are times in my life that I can reflect on how when I had the rare chance to date a woman I was more careful to wear protection. Now that I practice a PUA skill set I find myself waining away from safe sex practices. (Just to clear it up though I always practice safe sex), but what I am saying it’s easier to not than it is to practice it therefore with more freedoms one can tend to “forget” certain safe practices.

It is Pandora’s box to realize however that by living a more “free” lifestyle we are essentially giving up this freedom when we are diagnosed with HIV and thus have given up our ultimate freedom which is Being.

You can be in bondage and still no one can ever take away the freedom of that which is your Being.

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Russia has always had HIV problems… now it’s “exploding”..

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Given alcohol consumption there (as well as IV drug use), I wonder to what extent weakened immune systems play a part in the spread of the disease.

BTW Exile.ru has some local colour on life in Russia as an expat.

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I do not think it was a shift to capitalism per se but rather the dissappearance of the heavy control with the collapse of the communist government that has led to this situation. Communism in Russia was always a very controlling and sexually conservative force. Pre-marital sex was a no-no and there was little to no sex education much less healthy public discussion of sex. Plus given the housing shortages so common under communist rule even if a couple were so inclined it might be difficult to find a decent private place to do the deed. The other thing communism did was kill a lot of the influence of the Russian Orthodox Church. Add that all up and when communism and its stifling control died, well, without any real sex-ed and no strong influence saying no pre-marital sex or practice safe sex … we see where they are at now. The US as a country (certainly not the individuals who contracted HIV/AIDs) was lucky in that HIV was primarily contained within smaller population groups until it was identified and that we then were able to conduct a fairly successful major public education campaign to contain it. This has not been the case in much of the former Eastern Block and sub-Saharan desert where HIV is spreading predominantly through the population via heterosexual contact for a variety os social and economic reasons (some of which we just discussed). This has made the infection rates much worse in these countries.