| AIDS and HIV-infection cases were registered for
the first time in human history in the early 1980s. The disease was spreading
at a fast rate, with its death toll growing, and has developed into a serious
challenge to the national health-care systems and the entire world community.
According to the UNAIDS data, in 2002 alone more than 3 million people
died of AIDS worldwide, about 5 million people were infected with HIV,
and the total number of those living with HIV exceeded 42 million.
Russia was spared for some time the progressing
epidemic, and the first HIV case was registered in the country only in
1987. But further developments turned out to be very unfavourable for Russia
which is now among the countries where the HIV epidemic is spreading at
a most alarming rate.
|