At a press conference in Moscow yesterday, Viktor Maleyev, chief infection expert of Russia's Health Ministry, said the nation's health system would be confronted in the future with the management of AIDS patients also infected with hepatitis C. "More than half of the registered 215,000 carriers of HIV will need therapy," Maleyev said. "The situation with AIDS and intercurrent hepatitis C has reached a critical level." Maleyev said people registered with HIV infection make up more than 1 percent of the population in several Russian regions. Oleg Yurin, the deputy chief of the Federal Center for AIDS Control, said the actual number of HIV-infected people is likely to be 10 to 20 times higher. "If urgent measures are not taken and the financing of programs aimed at disease prevention is not increased, there will be 3 to 4 million HIV-infected in Russia in a few years," Yurin said.

Back to other CDC news for October 15, 2002

Previous Updates | Search the CDC archive