RUSSIA: Foreign experts warn of major AIDS epidemic fuelled by Heroin use at Eastern Europe and Central Asia conference

Record ID: 344076

  • Title: RUSSIA: Foreign experts warn of major AIDS epidemic fuelled by Heroin use at Eastern Europe and Central Asia conference
  • Date: 29th October 2009
  • Summary: MOSCOW, RUSSIA (OCTOBER 28, 2009) (REUTERS) WIDE OF PLENARY SESSION OF THE THIRD EASTERN EUROPE AND CENTRAL ASIA AIDS CONFERENCE CONFERENCE PANEL CONFERENCE PARTICIPANT LOOKING THROUGH BOOKLET CONFERENCE PARTICIPANTS IN HALL (SOUNDBITE) (English) ROBIN GORNA, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR OF THE INTERNATIONAL AIDS SOCIETY, SAYING: "This is the region with one of the fastest gro
  • Embargoed: 13th November 2009 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Topics: Health
  • Reuters ID: LVACJGBU96XQZTTF54CFE2TTFONZ
  • Story Text: Foreign experts at a major AIDS conference hosted in Moscow on Wednesday (October 28) warned that the number of HIV-infected people in Russia, which they put at 1 million, is on the rise as injected drug use fuels an explosive AIDS epidemic.
    They say drug use, mostly heroin from nearby Afghanistan, is the main driver for around 80 percent of existing HIV cases in the world's largest country, where officials put the number of registered cases at just over half a million.
    "This is the region with one of the fastest growing epidemics. Of all the regions in the world this is the only region the epidemics are not turning the corner, they are not plateauing and they are not turning down. So we have grave concerns about the rate of increase of HIV in this region," said Robin Gorna, the executive director of the International Aids Society (IAS).
    The conference, the third Eastern Europe and Central Asia AIDS conference, also heard calls for the authorities in Moscow to permit the use of the heroin substitute methadone.
    Russia is now the world leader in heroine abuse, with cheap heroin from Afghanistan flooding the south of the country. Each year around 30,000 people die from illegal drug use.
    Russia's chief doctor, Gennady Onischenko, however, opposes calls to legalise methadone, a substance used in many western countries to help heroin addicts fight their addiction.
    "So far we haven't seen and haven't heard convincing evidence that methadone therapy is effective. There is no such data," said Onischenko.
    Experts at the seminar called on the Russian government to spend more on education and on providing clean syringes and needles for intravenous drugs.
    "In Russia around 1 million people infected, it is may be 50,000 deaths per year and it is not far from a 100,000 new infections occurring per year. A very serious epidemic and in contrast to what we see elsewhere in the world an epidemic which is still a relatively fast-growing epidemic," said Michel Kazatchkine, Executive Director of the Global Fund to fight AIDS, TB and Malaria.
    More than 33 million people across the world are infected with the virus, the United Nations said in September. Since the AIDS pandemic started in the early 1980s, more than 25 million people have died from the virus. There is no cure, but a cocktail of drugs known as highly active anti-retroviral therapy can help keep it under control.
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