Russia: As HIV Spreads, Officials Are Still Looking the Other Way

Nowhere in the world is HIV spreading faster than in the former Soviet Union, an ominous trend that has so far been driven almost exclusively by the young embracing drug experimentation. And yet Russia has devoted little if any attention to the prevention and treatment of drug abuse, AIDS experts say. Now, as Russia begins to see the first signs that transmission among non-drug-using heterosexuals is on the rise, experts worry that the nation once again will react far too slowly to a health crisis.

The director of the Russian Federation AIDS Center, Dr. Vadim Pokrovsky, said as much as $65 million is needed immediately to slow the spread of HIV in Russia. The government could have tapped into the Global Fund for nations facing huge increases in AIDS, but it did not submit a proposal. The fund could have produced as much as $27 million for Russia this year, experts believe. Ukraine, which is facing a crisis of its own with 1 percent of the population HIV-positive, was awarded $9 million from the fund this year and is to receive $92 million over 10 years.

Ninety percent of Russians infected by HIV are intravenous drug users. Researchers estimate that two out of every five intravenous drug users already are infected with HIV, said Andrei Kozlov, one of Russia's leading AIDS researchers. The proportion of new HIV cases linked to heterosexual transmission jumped from 4 percent in 2001 to 8.4 percent during the first three months this year, said Pokrovsky.

Other former Soviet republics faced with rapid increases in the spread of HIV, including Kyrgyzstan and Belarus, have begun methadone programs to help reduce the incidence of intravenous drug use. In Russia, however, methadone is illegal. Needle exchange programs benefit about 5 percent of the country's intravenous drug users, said one expert. But to make a significant dent in the spread of HIV among that group, at least 60 percent coverage is needed.

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