Russia: AIDS Spending Will Jump to $289 Million

In 2007, Russia will spend 7.7 billion rubles ($289 million US) to prevent and treat HIV/AIDS, more than double the 3.1 billion rubles ($116 million US) it spent against the disease this year, Vladimir Fridlyanov, deputy education and science minister, said Tuesday.

Next year's allocation will be spent to build additional AIDS clinics, adding to the more than 100 clinics operating outside Moscow, and to upgrade existing facilities, Fridlyanov told an audience on the first day of the two-day National Conference on HIV Prevention Education at Moscow's Bauman Technical University. In addition, the government will spend a portion of funds to increase AIDS awareness among youths. In 2006, Russia spent 200 million rubles ($7.5 million US) for HIV/AIDS texts and instructors in schools and universities.

"The aims of the education program are in part to dispel a few myths about HIV/AIDS," Fridlyanov said. Disease myths discussed included catching HIV from breathing the same air or drinking from the same cup as a person with HIV.

Three years ago, 90 percent of reported HIV cases were related to intravenous drug use, compared with 60 percent today, said Carel de Roy, UNICEF's Moscow representative. Compared with the West, where 70 percent of HIV cases involve those over age 30, 80 percent of Russia's HIV cases are under age 30, said de Roy. Each day in Russia, HIV infects 80 people under age 28 and 18 babies, he said.

Simon Baker, a Bangkok-based UNESCO official, criticized Russian officials for being unwilling to fight HIV/AIDS more honestly and openly. He watched Thailand's epidemic move from high-risk groups to the wider population in the 1980s and 1990s. "In Thailand, no one could say the word 'condom' or 'penis' because it was socially unacceptable and against the culture and religion of the nation," he said. "It's the same situation here. I have been here for a few days now and have not heard the word 'condom' mentioned once. The signs are that there is a big disaster coming."

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