Among the problem regions, the leaders are the Irkutsk and Samara regions with 1.7 and 1.6% of HIV-infected people, respectively. Next come: Sverdlovsk region (1.6%), Kemerovo region(1.5%), Orenburg region (1.2%), Leningrad region (1.2%), Chelyabinsk region (1%), St. Petersburg (1%), Tyumen region (1%; including autonomous okrugs ).

“The number of people infected with HIV in the Urals is not something out of the ordinary,” confirms the director of the federal AIDS center, Vadim Pokrovsky, who was the first to report the HIV epidemic in Russia in May 2015. In his opinion, in the 1990s, large quantities of injecting drugs were brought into “relatively prosperous” cities, which led to an outbreak of HIV infection among drug addicts. Later, the infection spread to the rest of the population, the expert explains. The expert lists such cities as Irkutsk, Samara, Togliatti (in this city, according to Pokrovsky, 3% of the population is infected), Chelyabinsk and St. Petersburg.

Regions with megacities are the most problematic, agrees Andrey Skvortsov, coordinator of the Patient Control movement. Official data for some cities, for example, St. Petersburg, may be underestimated by three times, RBC's interlocutor is sure (according to official data, there are 53.3 thousand HIV-infected people out of a population of 5.2 million in the city).

It’s difficult to say in which region they hide official statistics and in which they don’t, notes the coordinator of the street social work Fund for the Promotion of Health and Social Justice named after Andrei Rylkov Maxim Malyshev. “The situation is bad in all regions - some more, some less. However, there are historically established places where the statistics are always higher - Yekaterinburg, Kurgan, other Siberian cities,” he points out.

At risk

Today, the drug method of HIV transmission is gradually disappearing, says Pokrovsky. According to the Federal AIDS Center, 48% of infections occur in heterosexual relationships. “It has to do with serial monogamy. People do not live long with one person, but constantly change partners. If at least one HIV-infected person gets into this chain, then everyone becomes infected,” Pokrovsky believes.

The main methods of combating the epidemic are: effective prevention programs, the introduction of sex education in schools and substitution therapy for drug addicts. “In France or Germany, replacement therapy is legal and there are ten times fewer infected people. In the meantime, we have a conservative approach, whose supporters raise a terrible howl and call for them to go their own way, the number of infected people will grow. First we need to stop the epidemic and only then promote healthy image life,” the expert sums up.

Prevention measures

Russia will be saved by condoms, modern drugs for treating HIV, publicly available information, free tests to determine their status and harm reduction programs for drug addicts, lists Skvortsov from Patient Control. “For a long time, the problem of the spread of HIV as a shameful disease was kept silent. Only this year did some promotions begin free testing for HIV. The situation needs to be corrected urgently,” he points out.

First of all, Skvortsov believes, it is necessary to provide 100% of registered HIV patients with antiretroviral therapy - lifelong maintenance therapy for people with the human immunodeficiency virus, blocking the spread of infection. For the convenience of patients, the state should purchase combination drugs, containing several active ingredients at once. This reduces the chances that an HIV-infected person will stop taking treatment due to large quantity tablets, says Skvortsov.

Secondly, it is necessary to introduce harm reduction programs for drug addicts in Russia. “Russian officials believe that such programs are simply distributing methadone to drug addicts. But that's not true. Harm reduction programs are a set of measures aimed at identifying an injection drug user, giving him the opportunity to take all tests, provide legal support and help in rehabilitation,” says the expert.

First of all, prevention must be introduced among risk groups, believes Malyshev from the Rylkov Foundation. “Now there is almost no street work - there is no distribution of syringes or condoms. In Russia, only 26 organizations are engaged in real prevention, and several of them are recognized foreign agents and they are not allowed to work at all,” he said.

Today, five non-profit organizations specializing in the problems of HIV infection in Russia are recognized as foreign agents, RBC has found out. These are the Perm NGO "Sibalt", the Saratov "Socium", the Penza "Panacea" and two Moscow organizations - "Esvero" and the Andrey Rylkov Foundation.

In 2016, the Russian government allocated an additional 2.3 billion rubles to the Ministry of Health. for the purchase of antiviral drugs for the prevention and treatment of HIV-infected people. The corresponding order was signed by Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev. According to it, the Sverdlovsk region will receive the largest amount among the regions - 260.6 million rubles. October 25 government, which has not yet provided money to combat the spread of HIV.

According to the report announced at the Fifth international conference on HIV, held in March 2016 in Moscow, the following ranking of 10 countries was compiled by the number of people infected with AIDS. The incidence of AIDS in these countries is so high that it has the status of an epidemic.

AIDS– acquired immune deficiency syndrome due to HIV infection. It is the last stage of the disease of an HIV-infected person, accompanied by the development of infection, tumor manifestations, general weakness and ultimately leads to death.

1.2 million patients out of 14 million population. Therefore, it is not surprising that the average life expectancy there is 38 years.

9th place. Russia

In 2016, in Russia, the number of people infected with AIDS exceeded 1 million people according to Russian health care, 1.4 million according to the EECAAC-2016 report. Moreover, the number of infected people has been actively growing over the past few years. For example: every 50th resident of Yekaterinburg is HIV positive.

In Russia, more than half of the patients became infected through a needle when injecting a drug. This route of infection is not the main route of infection for any country in the world. Why are there such statistics in Russia? Many say this is due to the shift away from the use of oral methadone as an injectable drug replacement.

Many people mistakenly believe that the problem of infection of drug addicts is only their problem; it is not so scary if the “scum of society” acquire diseases that lead to death. A person who uses drugs is not a monster who can be easily identified in a crowd. He for a long time leads a completely normal life. Therefore, spouses and children of drug addicts are often infected. Cases cannot be excluded when infection occurs in clinics and beauty salons after poor disinfection of instruments.

Until society realizes the real threat, until casual partners stop assessing the presence of STDs by eye, until the government changes its attitude towards drug addicts, we will rapidly rise in this ranking.

8th place. Kenya

6.7% of the population of this former English colony are HIV carriers, namely 1.4 million people. Moreover, the infection rate is higher among women, since the social level of the female population is low in Kenya. Perhaps the rather free morals of Kenyans also play a role - they approach sex easily.

7th place. Tanzania

Of the 49 million population of this African country, just over 5% (1.5 million) have AIDS. There are areas where the infection rate exceeds 10%: these are Njobe, far from tourist routes, and the capital of Tanzania, Dar es Salaam.

6th place. Uganda

The government of this country is making great efforts to combat the HIV problem. For example, if in 2011 there were 28 thousand children born with HIV, then in 2015 – 3.4 thousand. The number of new infections in adults also decreased by 50%. The 24-year-old king of Toro (one of the regions of Uganda) took control of the epidemic into his own hands and promised to stop the epidemic by 2030. There are one and a half million cases in this country.

5th place. Mozambique

More than 10% of the population (1.5 million people) are infected with HIV, and the country has no own strength to fight the disease. About 0.6 million children in this country are orphans due to the death of their parents from AIDS.

4th place. Zimbabwe

1.6 million infected per 13 million inhabitants. Widespread prostitution, lack of basic knowledge about contraception and general poverty led to these figures.

3rd place. India

Official figures are about 2 million patients, unofficial figures are much higher. Traditional Indian society is quite closed; many people keep silent about health problems. Educational work There is practically no work done with young people; talking about condoms in schools is unethical. Hence, there is almost complete illiteracy in matters of contraception, which distinguishes this country from African countries, where getting condoms is not a problem. According to surveys, 60% of Indian women have never heard of AIDS.

2nd place. Nigeria

3.4 million HIV patients out of 146 million population, less than 5% of the population. The number of infected women is higher than men. Since there is no free healthcare in the country, the worst situation is in the poor.

1 place. South Africa

Country with the highest incidence of AIDS. Approximately 15% of the population is infected with the virus (6.3 million). About a quarter of high school girls already have HIV. Life expectancy is 45 years. Imagine a country where few people have grandparents. Scary? Although South Africa is recognized as the most economically developed country Africa, most of the population lives below the poverty line. The government is doing a lot of work to curb the spread of AIDS; free condoms and testing are provided. However, poor people are convinced that AIDS is a white invention, just like condoms, and therefore both should be avoided.

Bordering South Africa, Swaziland is a country with a population of 1.2 million people, half of whom are HIV-positive. The average Swazilander does not live to be 37 years old.

Ten regions of Russia are in critical condition in terms of HIV prevalence. This was stated by the Minister of Health of the Russian Federation Veronika Skvortsova. The sad list is headed by the Sverdlovsk and Kemerovo regions.

“HIV is spread very unevenly throughout the country,” noted the head of the Ministry of Health. “The prevalence is significantly higher, several times, in those regions through which drug trafficking routes pass. Therefore, there are 10 critical regions out of 85. In first place is the Sverdlovsk region, Yekaterinburg, which got into the press (in connection with this),” Skvortsova said.

According to the minister, “57% of all sources of HIV infection are through injection, usually from heroin addicts.” As for such a traditional risk group as homosexuals, this trend is less pronounced in Russia.

“40% of cases of sexually transmitted infections relate to heterosexual couples,” Skvortsova pointed out, emphasizing that the increase in the number of infected people is due to healthy women who picked up the virus from their own husband.

According to the Federal Center for the Prevention and Control of AIDS, at the end of last year the list of the most HIV-affected regions was as follows: Irkutsk region, Sverdlovsk, Kemerovo, Samara, Orenburg, Leningrad region, Khanty-Mansiysk autonomous region, Tyumen, Chelyabinsk, Tyumen regions.

During the year, anonymous testing was carried out in problem regions, which was completed by 23.5 thousand young people under 30 years of age. Among them, 2.3% were identified as HIV-infected.

In early November, the Ministry of Health of Yekaterinburg announced that every 50th resident in the city has AIDS.

“Our infection rate is 1,826 people per hundred thousand, this is 1.8% of the city’s population, 26,693 thousand infected,” said Tatyana Savinova, deputy head of the city health department of Yekaterinburg. “And that’s just known cases, the real incidence is even higher,” she emphasized.

But this situation in Yekaterinburg has been developing for decades, so doctors do not make announcements about the beginning of the epidemic, the city health department emphasized.

According to the criteria of the WHO and the Joint United Nations Program on HIV, more than 1% of those infected means that the infection is firmly rooted in the population and its spread is practically independent of risk groups.

Meanwhile in Federal Center for the Prevention and Control of AIDS believe that Russia today is on the verge of moving to the third and final stage of the HIV epidemic.

“An epidemic is a relative concept. HIV has three stages. Initial - the first cases are imported from abroad. The second is concentrated, risk groups are affected. In our country, 10% of men who have sex with men and 20% of drug addicts are now infected. And when more than 1% of pregnant women are infected, then it is generalized. We are now at the stage of transition from the second to the third," the head of the center, Academician of the Russian Academy of Medical Sciences Vadim Pokrovsky, told the L!fe portal.

The word “AIDS” is known to every person on earth and means a terrible disease, against the background of which there is an uncontrolled drop in the level of lymphocytes in a person’s blood. The disease state is the final phase of development of HIV infection in the body, leading to death. The first descriptions of the disease date back to the 80s, when doctors around the world encountered its manifestations.

Statistics data

Currently, AIDS in Russia is spreading at a colossal pace. Statistics officially recorded the number of infected people. Their number is shocking with its zeros, namely, there are about 1,000,000 patients with HIV infection. These data were announced by V. Pokrovsky, head of the Center for Epidemiology of the Russian Federation. Statistics claim that during the Christmas holidays of 2015 alone, the number of people infected with HIV corresponds to the figure of 6,000. Pokrovsky noted these data as the highest figure for all previous years.

As a rule, the issue of AIDS becomes the most discussed twice a year. The AIDS Center declared the beginning of winter (December 1) as the Day against the Disease. In the first days of May, the Day of Mourning is held for those who died from the “plague of the 20th century”. However, the topic of AIDS and HIV infection was touched upon outside these two days. The UN statement stated that the Russian Federation has become a global center for the spread of HIV. Particularly frequent cases of the disease have been registered in the Irkutsk region. It has become a generalized center of the HIV epidemic.

This information once again confirms the progression of the disease. V. Pokrovsky has repeatedly stated this, and UNAIDS documents have also reported this. Dmitry Medvedev, during a meeting of the health commission, confirmed the presence of cases in the country and an increase in the number of patients by 10% annually. Frightening facts came from the lips of V. Skvortsova, who believes that in about 5 years, AIDS in Russia could reach the level of 250%. These facts indicate an all-encompassing epidemic.

Percentage of cases

Discussing the problem, V. Pokrovsky argues that the typical way of infecting women is through sexual intercourse. The fact is that AIDS in Russia is recorded in more than 2% of the male population aged 23 to 40 years. Of them:

• with drug use - about 53%;
• sexual contact - about 43%;
• homosexual relationships - about 1.5%;
• children born to mothers with HIV infection - 2.5%.

The statistics are truly shocking in their numbers.

Reasons for AIDS Leadership

Experts note two main indicators of the deterioration of the situation in this area.

• AIDS in Russia is spreading at such a rapid pace due to the lack of programs to combat it. The fact is that in the period 2000-2004 the Russian Federation received support to overcome this problem from international fund. After the Russian Federation was recognized as a country with high incomes, international subsidies were suspended, and internal subsidies from the country’s budget became insufficient to overcome the disease.
• The disease is advancing by leaps and bounds due to drug use through injection. The AIDS Center confirmed that about 54% of citizens received the disease “through a syringe.”

The statistics are shocking due to the widespread nature of the disease. The risk of becoming HIV-infected increases every year. The number of deaths from this disease has also increased.

According to V. Pokrovsky, there are 205,000 people in Russia. This figure covers only the surveyed segments of the population. This includes patients who are already registered as having received the infection. According to experts, to this number should be added potentially hidden HIV carriers who do not receive treatment and are not registered with a doctor. In total, the figure could reach 1,500,000 people.

The most problematic area for AIDS

AIDS statistics in Russia show how widespread the problem is. On this moment The situation affecting the Irkutsk region is considered the most critical. The region's chief doctor for combating the disease stated that almost every 2 people out of a hundred have a confirmation of an HIV test. This corresponds to 1.5% of the total population of the region.

Three out of four incidents involve sexual contact between people under 40 years of age. When the circumstances are clarified, it often turns out that the infected person had no idea that he had become a carrier of the infection and requires intensive treatment.

In V. Pokrovsky’s report, the phrase was said: “If 1% of women carrying a fetus are diagnosed with HIV based on the results of a blood test, then epidemiologists have the right to classify the disease as a generalized epidemic.” It was this indicator that was confirmed by doctors in the Irkutsk region. The situation has worsened due to the lack of specialized center and negligent attitude towards the problem of the regional governor.

Along with the Irkutsk region, a difficult situation observed in another 19 regions. These include areas:

• Samara;
• Sverdlovskaya;
• Kemerovo;
• Ulyanovskaya;
• Tyumen;
• Perm region;
• Leningradskaya;
• Chelyabinskaya;
• Orenburgskaya;
• Tomskaya;
• Altai region;
• Murmanskaya;
• Novosibirsk;
• Omsk;
• Ivanovskaya;
• Tverskaya;
• Kurganskaya;
• Khanty-Mansiysk District.

The first place in the black list is occupied by the Sverdlovsk and Irkutsk regions, followed by Perm, followed by the Khanty-Mansiysk Okrug, and the Kemerovo region concludes the list.

The leadership of the regions is far from encouraging. In these areas, you can take the test anonymously at any doctor's office.

AIDS: cost of treatment

While anonymous testing is free in most cases, the treatment itself will require significant investment. The pricing policy of pharmaceutical companies in the field of antiretroviral therapy in our country is quite strict. Thus, when comparing prices, it can be noted that the course of treatment in African countries is equal to 100 dollars, in India it will be from 250 to 300 dollars, but in Russia you should pay about 2000 dollars for it. This amount is unaffordable for many residents of the country.

Statistics indicate that over the past year, only slightly more than 30% of the sick population were able to receive antiretroviral care. The reason for this fact is the inflated prices set by medicine suppliers.

If it turns out that your partner is HIV-positive, you need to get tested urgently. AIDS is a dangerous, fatal disease, so delay in examination can end disastrously for the patient.

1. For the first time, people on the planet learned about the disease only 3 decades ago.
2. The most insidious strain is HIV 1.
3. Compared to the original virus, today's HIV has become more adaptable and tougher.
4. In the 80s, the disease sounded like a synonym for a death sentence.
5. The first case of infection was recorded by doctors in Congo.
6. Many experts are of the opinion that it was the secondary use of syringes that led to such a rapid spread of the disease.
7. The first person to open the list of people who became infected and died from AIDS was a teenager from It happened in 1969.
8. In America, the first spreader of the disease is considered to be homosexual Steward Dugas, who died of HIV in 1984.
9. List famous people of the world who have died from the virus can be read with tears in your eyes. The disease claimed the lives of Arthur Ashe, Freddie Mercury, Magic Johnson and many others.
10. The case of Nushawn Williams is considered egregious, who, knowing about his infection, deliberately infected his partners, for which he received a prison sentence.
11. Do not despair if our the immune system able to resist the disease. So, out of 300 people, the body of one copes with the disease on its own. This means that our body includes a gene that can protect us from the virus, and we can hope that soon a terrible diagnosis will not mean a death sentence.

Statistics on HIV incidence and AIDS mortality vary greatly in different countries and continents. The indicators are influenced by the standard of living of the population, economic development, health and social care, youth policy and healthy lifestyle promotion. It would seem that the leaders in immunodeficiency are the backward countries of the third world. However, HIV in the Russian Federation is spreading at a rate that puts Russia in third place in the world ranking in terms of incidence growth rates, behind only South Africa and Nigeria.

HIV statistics in Russia are changing for the worse from year to year. Since 1987, when they first started talking about the terrible diagnosis, and to the present day, the number of cases and mortality has been increasing. The percentage ratios of new cases of immunodeficiency and the population size bring the Russian Federation to a leading position in the lists of countries former USSR and the whole planet. Moreover, the main increase in deplorable statistics did not occur in the 90s; neither a change of government, nor a change in way of thinking, nor an improvement in the quality of life are affected - an increase in the rate of spread of HIV is recorded every year. The mortality index (the number of deaths per 1000 people) has increased 10 times over the past ten years.

According to official data, there are about a million HIV patients in Russia, that is, approximately 0.7% of the country's residents are infected with HIV. According to unofficial information from foreign agencies, the percentage in reality is exactly 2 times higher, and this indicates an epidemic of immunodeficiency in the Russian Federation.

In order not to cause panic and not to take away the first place in AIDS from South Africa and Nigeria, in Russia the statistics are slightly adjusted in the right direction. For example, a person with AIDS dies, but the cause of death is a secondary disease - heart failure or malignancy, and the patient was not registered for immunodeficiency. This death does not affect HIV mortality. Also, the data on total number sick – there is no mandatory HIV testing procedure. Thousands of people do not go to medical institutions or donate blood for years. Naturally, if they are infected, Rosstat and Rospotrebnadzor do not know about it. If a person is diagnosed with HIV, but does not undergo an examination and is not registered with an infectious disease specialist, then such a case is also not taken into account - the patients who are actually registered are taken into account. In Russia, most citizens need to be forced and persuaded to go to the hospital and get treatment. Based on the above cases, real numbers The incidence of AIDS in the Russian Federation is definitely much higher.

Regions and cities are leaders in the number of HIV cases

Russia is a large country and, accordingly, statistical data varies by region. The most disadvantaged for HIV last years steel Sverdlovsk, Irkutsk, Kemerovo, Novosibirsk, Samara, Orenburg region, Perm region, Khanty-Mansi Autonomous Okrug. These regions have the highest rate of increase in incidence and the highest percentage of HIV-infected people - more than 2% of residents are infected with the retrovirus, with a huge number of infected children and pregnant women (every 50th woman giving birth has immunodeficiency). Of the leading cities in HIV, the geography remains identical to the regional one - Kemerovo, Yekaterinburg, Irkutsk, Novosibirsk.

HIV statistics by age

HIV statistics by age in Russia have not changed for many years - the majority of those infected are young people from 20 to 39 years old, making up approximately 80% of registered patients. Another 10% are aged from 40 to 60 years, 9% are from newborns to 19 years. The latter category of patients is more vulnerable in terms of diagnosis of immunodeficiency. The diagnosis of HIV is accurately established in children from 0 years of age, infected in utero, during childbirth from a sick mother. The remaining children, among whom the peak of injection drug addiction is recorded at the age of 13-17 years, are not tested for the retrovirus and remain unaccounted for.

Reasons for Russia's leadership in HIV infection

The UN has named Russia the epicenter of the global epidemic of secondary immunodeficiency. Inaccurate and underestimated statistics on immunodeficiency in the Russian Federation exceeds the scale of the disaster in other countries. For example, in Germany the increase in incidence is three times less than in Russia. And there, HIV is a national problem, which is being fought and funds are allocated from the state budget. The HIV epidemic in Russia is not considered something global and serious, given the absence of a state program to combat AIDS. By the way, in the United States the state wrestling program appeared in the late 1980s.

There are two main reasons for Russia’s leadership in immunodeficiency infection:

• lack of fight against the disease at the state level - correction of statistics, lack of mandatory HIV testing of citizens without exception, lack of funding - propaganda and youth policy aimed at a healthy lifestyle;
• The epidemic of HIV and drug addiction coincide geographically, that is, the main route of infection in Russia is injecting drugs.

African countries, where at some time every second citizen was HIV-infected, were able to suppress the epidemic and began to fight the spread of infection. An economically and socially developed state must even more so recognize and accept the problem. Otherwise, according to experts, in the next 5 years Russia will come out on top in the world in terms of HIV, and the mortality rate from AIDS in the country will increase exponentially.