By 2003, HIV-infected Russian citizens had been
registered on 88 administrative territories of the Russian Federation.
By HIV prevalence, the territories of Russia can be divided into five categories:
-
Territories where no HIV-infection cases were registered
(one region).
-
Territories with a low level (1-50 HIV+ per 100,000
of the population) of HIV prevalence. This category includes 44 regions,
where 30% of the population of Russia live. The urgent and effective prevention
measures among drug users might restrain the epidemic on these territories.
-
Territories with HIV prevalence 51-150 HIV+ per 100,000:
24 regions with 30.5% of the country’s population. In these regions the
epidemic among drug users started either recently or it is developing slowly,
e.g., Nizhni Novgorod Region. The situation remaining relatively stable
for a long might be a consequense of the effective preventive measures.
-
Territories with a high level of HIV prevalence (151-300
HIV+ per 100,000) - include 9 regions, where 20% of the population of Russia
live. These are the regions where the epidemic generalization is very likely.
The situation here requires not only prevention efforts among drug users,
but also among the entire population.
-
Territories with a very high level of HIV prevalence
(301-550 HIV+ per 100,000). They include 11 regions with 19% of Russia’s
population. The situation in these regions may be regarded as critical,
and disease-prevention activities should be intensified there along all
lines. Regions with the highest level of the HIV-infection spread are given
in Table 6.
Table 6. Top 10
regions. Living with HIV/AIDS, per cent of entire population, end of 2002
| Regions |
Male
|
Female
|
Both sexes
|
| Irkutsk Region |
0.84
|
0.28
|
0.55
|
| Samara Region |
0.84
|
0.22
|
0.51
|
| Khanty-Mansi
Autonomous Area |
0.76
|
0.21
|
0.49
|
| Orenburg
Region |
0.78
|
0.16
|
0.45
|
| Kaliningrad
Region |
0.59
|
0.25
|
0.41
|
| St. Petersburg |
0.64
|
0.23
|
0.41
|
| Sverdlovsk
Region |
0.63
|
0.22
|
0.41
|
| Ulyanovsk
Region |
0.58
|
0.13
|
0.34
|
| Leningrad
Region |
0.48
|
0.18
|
0.32
|
| Chelyabinsk
Region |
0.52
|
0.13
|
0.31
|
Thus, 39% of the population of Russia live on territories
with the severe HIV epidemiological situation whith the proportion of HIV+
between 0.1% and 0.6% of the entire population. The epidemic emerged on
these territories mainly in 1999-2000 initially among drug users, and HIV
prevalence remains high in this group. In 2002, from 2% to 23% of tested
drug users appeared HIV+, but the true percentage of the HIV+ in this group
might be much higher.
On the other hand, the above data show that in
Russia there are many non-infected IDUs who are at a great risk contamination.
Urgent disease-prevention efforts in this risk group may effectively impede
the spread of the epidemic. Meanwhile, the epidemic has spread to a part
of the population who are not drug users, and other approaches are needed
to HIV prevention among such people.
|