Russian HIV contagition rates highest in Europe

Russia tops the European ranking of HIV distribution, says a report compiled by the To Be Precise research project organised by an independent charity foundation called Help Needed (Нужна помощь).

57% of the newly HIV infected people in Europe were from Russia in 2020. A total of 1.1 million Russians had HIV in December 2021, according to Rospotrebnadzor, Russia’s Federal Service for Human Wellbeing. The Ministry of Public Health, however, provides a number of 842,000 people with HIV.

In 2020, the number of newly infected people worldwide decreased by 24% compared to the 2019 figures, according to the World Health Organisation. The reason behind this, as the WHO believes, is that fewer people tested for HIV during the COVID-19 pandemic. Russia’s figures also decreased; Rospotrebnadzor agrees with the aforementioned explanation, while the Health Ministry claims that the HIV situation is simply getting better in the country.

34,093 people with HIV died in Russia in 2021, however, the average rate is estimated at 30 thousand in recent years, says the independent report. 60% of the deceased died of HIV-related reasons, the COVID-19 pandemic making the situation even worse.

Russia recently increased funding for HIV treatment, aiming to provide ARV drugs to 90% of the infected. However, only 47.8% of the HIV-infected people received ARV treatment in 2020 as per the report; Rospotrebnadzor claims this proportion to be 53.2%. The corona pandemic, as well as the Ukraine War also made ARV treatment less available due to supply chain disruptions.