Russian AIDS Workers Wage Battle on Edge of Epidemic

Moscow's AIDS group Return to Life is one of only a handful in Russia that offer intravenous drug users (IDUs) help, including clean needles. "Drug users in Russia have a great deal of difficulty believing that anyone would actually want to do anything good for them," said the group's Dmitry Glagovo, himself a recovering addict.

One in 100 Russian adults now have HIV, according to a February UN report that warned AIDS is now spreading fastest worldwide in the former Soviet Union. HIV's spread could exacerbate Russia's current population decline and reduce GDP by as much as 1 percent a year. Despite these figures, Russian President Vladimir Putin's government has shown few signs of taking the AIDS epidemic seriously. Russia's annual AIDS funding is about $4 million, from which $1 million goes to prevention. The remaining $3 million for treatment is enough for about 600 patients annually.

Among reasons U.S. and UN experts cite for Russia's epidemic:

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• Almost 80 percent of Russian HIV/AIDS cases are drug-related, yet there are only 59 government centers for nearly 4 million IDUs. Most programs work only to detoxify IDUs, with little behavioral counseling or follow-up, and 12-step programs are not widespread.

• Soviet-era laws enforceable on nearly all controlled substances make substitution therapy for IDUs almost impossible. Methadone is illegal.

• Almost 20 percent of AIDS cases are in prisons, which have few treatment programs save for pilot programs funded by foreign grants. Widespread stigma against high-risk populations including drug addicts and sex workers drives them underground, making them even harder to reach.

• Social service and medical facilities are a disaster, stretched by widespread problems including TB, STDs and alcoholism.

In more hopeful news, last year the World Bank loaned Russia $150 million to fight AIDS and TB. The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, TB and Malaria awarded a nearly $90 million grant to five nongovernmental organizations working in Russia. And the U.S. government will increase AIDS funding for Russia to over $8 million under President Bush's 2005 budget proposal; the administration gave $6.8 million last year.

Back to other news for April 21, 2004