"Traditional Values" vs. Sex Education
Russia ranks third in the world for new HIV infections. The number of new HIV cases and AIDS-related deaths has been steadily increasing since 2005. And this is far from just a medical problem.
Today, on World AIDS Day, we'll tell you the most important things about this disease.
1. The closest relative of the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) is the simian immunodeficiency virus (SIV), which was isolated from chimpanzees in southern Cameroon. HIV is believed to have originated from the interspecies transmission of SIVs from primates to humans through hunting and butchering. The transformation of the SIV into a new strain, posing a threat to humans, occurred through repeated human-to-human transmission over a short period of time.
2. The problem only gained significant attention in 1981 after the publication of reports by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in the United States. Initially, HIV was thought to be a disease of homosexual men, but it later began to be detected in women and children, as well as in individuals who had received blood transfusions.
There are three main ways of transmitting HIV: through unprotected sex, through medical procedures, and from mother to child during pregnancy, childbirth, and breastfeeding.
3. HIV infection, when it enters the human body, leads to the destruction of the immune system. AIDS (acquired immunodeficiency syndrome) is the final stage of HIV disease. AIDS was widespread at the very beginning of the HIV epidemic, before antiretroviral drugs were developed. Currently, AIDS develops only in people who are either unaware of their positive status, refuse treatment, or lack access to it. Antiretroviral therapy allows those infected to lead normal lives.
4. The first case of the disease in the USSR was registered in 1987. In 1988, the first mass outbreak of HIV in the USSR was recorded in Elista: 75 children and 4 adult women were infected at a children's clinic. A later investigation revealed that medical staff had reused unsterile syringes several times, changing only the needles. Some patients were transferred to larger medical centers in Volgograd, Stavropol, Rostov-on-Don, and Shakhty, which led to the spread of the virus in these regions.
5. By the early 90s, according to official data, fewer than 500 people were infected in the USSR, primarily due to the lack of a clear research program. Since 1996, HIV has been spreading rapidly in Russia, primarily among injection drug users. Today, the infection is spreading among a wider segment of the population: increasingly, people who are not included in traditional risk groups, who have jobs, families, and lead normal lives, are being diagnosed.
6. The Russian Federation remains among the few countries where the number of new cases of HIV infection and deaths from AIDS has been continuously growing since 2005. According to UNAIDS estimates, the Russian Federation is in third place in the number of new cases of HIV infection after (the first two are occupied by South Africa and Nigeria.
According to the Central Research Institute of Epidemiology of Rospotrebnadzor, 1.25 million people in Russia are infected with the human immunodeficiency virus, or more than 1% of the adult population. Approximately 300,000-400,000 Russians are infected with HIV but do not know it.
7. The spread of the virus in Russia is also being facilitated by the aggressive imposition of "traditional values," which hinders sexual education for adolescents and promotes chastity and marital fidelity as protection against the disease. Other factors include the persecution of NGOs working with drug addicts and distributing syringes and condoms, a shortage of antiretroviral therapy medications and diagnostic tests, and the stigmatization of those infected.
