While HIV has been noted as one of the long dreaded diseases, Russia is once again put to the spotlight as it was recently found to have surpassed its 1 million mark in HIV cases. However, despite the current situation, health experts believe that it will not change the government's commitment to allocate sufficient resources to stem the acceleration of the virus from high-risk groups into the general population. So, with this condition, does it imply that Russia's HIV cases will soon be perceived as the highest all over the world despite the power that the country has?
Russia Surpasses Its 1 Million Mark In HIV Cases
According to reports by The New York Times, as of the present time, longtime head of the Moscow-based Federal AIDS Center, Vadim Pokrovsky has revealed that approximately 850,000 Russians carry H.I.V. and an additional 220,000 have already died since the late 1980s. It was found that Pokrovsky was also the one who has allegedly estimated that at least another 500,000 cases of HIV are in fact, undiagnosed. Meanwhile, earlier this year, health authorities said that about 275 cases each day are being anticipated which results to nearly 100,000 new infections.
Furthermore, as per Seattle Times, tensions have even been raised after the country's Justice Ministry has rejected a number of bantam NGOs that has been reportedly involved in combating HIV/AIDS as "foreign agents" because they received grants from abroad. Authorities have revealed that although HIV cases are increasing, government officials claim that a national strategy and an advertising program promoting HIV tests backed by Svetlana Medvedeva, the wife of the prime minister, suggests that there is a high-level interest when it comes to ending the said pandemic disease.
Ultimately, it was found that under the World Health Organization guidelines which aim to reduce and prevent the spread of the disease, authorities have added that at least 90 percent of HIV-positive patients should receive antiviral drugs.
