Around 30,000 Russians of working age die annually from HIV, according to Vadim Pokrovsky, the head of Russia’s Federal Methodological Centre for HIV/AIDS Prevention.
This figure continues to rise alongside increasing treatment costs for the government and a lack of early HIV testing.
Speaking to TASS, Pokrovsky revealed that the Russian government spends RUB70bn ($670mn) per year on HIV treatment. The epidemic is exacerbated by the loss of economically active individuals, which Pokrovsky highlighted as a critical economic blow.
“If each year we lose 30,000 young, able-bodied people who could work for another 20-30 years, that is an additional loss [to the economy],” he said.
Russia’s HIV epidemic, which has resulted in 1.7mn infections and nearly 500,000 deaths to date, stems primarily from gaps in early diagnosis and inconsistent treatment availability. Reports indicate that shortages of antiretroviral drugs, including the vital medication Dolutegravir, have emerged due to disrupted supply chains and procurement issues, with some supply tenders being cancelled altogether.
While heterosexual transmission is now the most common means of spreading HIV in Russia, marginalised groups such as drug users, sex workers and gay men remain disproportionately vulnerable. Reduced funding for HIV testing – currently 30% below the recommended levels – has further undermined efforts at early detection, despite calls from medical experts for regular screenings to prevent immune system deterioration.
Holy shit, that’s huge. I was trying to wrap my head around those numbers.
Russia is about 3½ times Canada’s population, so 30K deaths is, per capita, equivalent to about 8.5K deaths in Canada. That’s higher than all-cause mortality in Canada from ages 1-35. Just from HIV.
Whoa. That’s not good.
Or, another perspective:
More than 1% of Russians are infected with HIV. (Estimated 1.5mm out of ~140mm.)
That seems to be too high. How can it be in a society which is extremely homophobic?
What does sexual orientation have anything to do with HIV?
I’m going to assume this comment is satire and not engage further than this.
It’s not satire. Please forgive me if I have said anything hurtful unknowingly.
Its really easy to spread HIV between gay men and people who do anal because your butts main job is to absorb water from crap and it can absorb semen and hiv virus -
But it’s not a gay disease - in some communities where gay people are testing a lot, using condoms and or prep tablets - more straight people are spreading HIV than gay people
And in homophobic societies , there will still be gay and bi people , but less likely to be tested as much because people aren’t allowed to ask at the clinic 'do you have sex with men m4m" / can’t run campaigns telling gay people to use protection and get tested , so it’s a mess , and can spread through society quickly
Worth adding. In homophobic a community. It is much less likely that gay men are able to get honest advice.
And way more likely that those gay men also risk heteosexual women. When attempting to avoid prejudice. Ie pretending not to be gay.
Back in the early 80s when aids first came out. The US and UK were very homophobic. To the point it was often illegal in some US states. And only recently legalised but still restricted in the UK.
This in no way prevented gay men and increased the risk to both gay and hetrosexual communities.
Just adding more insight from article
It’s primarily heterosexual transmission, though MSM and needle sharing are still vectors.
Sorry, MSM? I can’t read this as anything other than mainstream media.
Men who have Sex with Men, it includes multiple orientations under the umbrella such as Bi/Gay/Pan/(or straight or undecided, but still have sex with other men, MSM is used in a medical context)
Yeah, I had a very outdated understanding. I once heard that HIV was more prevalent among the gay community.
No worries, and this depends on the country as well. As sexual education breaks down, STIs and blood-borne pathogens increase.
Luckily, many have medicines to cure them- but prevention is better, particularly with the rise of drug-resistant bugs.
For HIV, there is a pill called PrEP that gives you extremely high protection against infection when used correctly. There is also a state of the art PrEP shot that was just released that gives you six months of (in trials) 100% immunity. However, it is very expensive at the moment.
The safest bet is always condoms and getting tested, as well as PrEP if you engage in sexual tourism with many people among any orientation. As always, talking to a doctor is the best way to get medical advice.
I think sexual education taboo is the biggest factor which gave rise to this epidemic in Russia. It stems from their conservative nature.