In Moscow on Saturday, UNAIDS chief Peter Piot told a conference on HIV/AIDS in the former Soviet Union that "the region is at a critical point." Russia and Central Asian states "are on the right path, the right trajectory but some difficult decisions have to be made."
The region saw a 150 percent increase in HIV infections since 2001 to around 1.6 million, though the rate of annual new infections has slowed from 210,000 in 2001 to 150,000 last year. The former Soviet states have invested heavily in HIV prevention efforts over the past few years and boosted partnerships between civil society and governments with positive results.
But the region is located on the main heroin trafficking route from Afghanistan to Europe, and drug use is rampant. "Here the big difference is that injecting drug use is so widespread compared to other countries in the world, millions of people are doing it," said Piot. In Russia and Central Asian states, up to 80 percent of HIV infections are linked to infected needles.
Piot said Russia in particular must do more to stop HIV transmission among drug users. The country has not invested in opiate-substitution programs, which have proven effective in reducing HIV infections in Europe and North America. Needle exchange is not supported by the public or government. "If you don't supply clean needles, if you don't supply methadone, you can't control the epidemic," he noted.
Another concern in the ex-Soviet states is the increasing percentage of women among those newly HIV-infected, doubling to approximately 40 percent in Russia and Ukraine from 2000 to 2007. "The question for me is: Is this the beginning of the generalization of HIV, is HIV getting out of the classic high-risk groups?" Piot asked.
05/03/08
Russia Must Grab Chance to Beat AIDS Epidemic: UN
Source: Reuters:: James Kilner; Courtesy of the CDC National Center for HIV, STD, and TB Prevention