Worldwide, more than 25 million people have died from AIDS, including 4,357 in Russia

Igor believes there isn't much he can do to safeguard himself from contracting HIV. In any case, he said, there are no guarantees in life.

"Of course, everyone should use a condom," he said. But he couldn't quite put his finger on why. "You're just supposed to. I don't really know what for."

Igor is far from alone in his apparent ignorance about HIV, as an informal poll on Pushkin Square indicated Thursday. Several recent national surveys also conclude that many Russians lack adequate information about HIV and AIDS.

As HIV/AIDS activists and government officials prepare to commemorate World AIDS Memorial Day on Sunday, they are stressing that Russia has a serious education problem that is contributing to a national AIDS epidemic.

"Our society is not ready, it doesn't understand what it's dealing with," said Vadim Pokrovsky, the top government AIDS official, at the Federal AIDS Center. "We spend $1 million per year on awareness programs. We should be spending $70 million," he said at a news conference Thursday.

Widespread misconceptions about how HIV is transmitted are a big reason behind the country's ballooning infection rate, now one of the highest in the world, Pokrovsky said.

On Pushkin Square, just a few meters away from Igor, a young woman smoking a cigarette said she did not know whether a condom prevents HIV infection.

Nevertheless, she said, she always uses one. But, like Igor, she could not say exactly why. "Some boys don't want to," she said, adding with a sheepish grin, "I know how to deal with that."

Viktor Safin, a 25-year-old clothing store manager, was more sure of himself. "Of course you use a condom to protect against AIDS," he said. "And you should go to your doctor for tests."

Surveys indicate Safin is in the majority, but not by much. While three-fourths of Russians think that HIV/AIDS can be prevented, only 59 percent believe regular condom use reduces the chance of infection, according to the Russian Longitudinal Monitoring Survey, a Russia-wide poll of 6,115 people led by the University of North Carolina.

"There is an urgent need in Russia to educate people, especially young people, about the dangers of HIV transmission through unsafe sexual practices and about the need to take preventive measures," said the report, which was released last month.

Sex education is all but absent in schools, and parents were raised in an era when safe sex wasn't discussed. That leaves young people with little choice but to learn about HIV and AIDS from their friends and the media.

A lack of understanding not only fuels the spread of HIV and AIDS, but it also leads to discrimination against those who are infected, said Rian Van de Braak, head of AIDS Foundation East-West, an NGO.

"This is an epidemic that started around drug users, sex workers and prisoners, and these groups are often treated as scapegoats for the disease," she said.

But in Russia, the illness is spreading quickly beyond these groups. In 2001, about 5 percent of new infections were from heterosexual sex, but the number soared to 20 percent last year, Pokrovsky said.

A recent Focus-Media poll indicates that fewer than 25 percent of Moscow residents think an HIV-positive teacher should be allowed to continue teaching, while only 10 percent would continue shopping at a grocery store whose owner was infected with HIV. Almost half of respondents said people with HIV should be isolated from the rest of society.

Poll findings also indicate that more than half of Moscow residents believe HIV can be contracted by sharing a glass of water with an infected person or dining at a restaurant with an HIV-positive server.

Focus-Media polled 1,200 Moscow residents. No margin of error was given.

On Sunday, HIV/AIDS groups are planning a "memory bridge," a series of demonstrations in 30 Russian cities, including Moscow and St. Petersburg. Organizers expect a crowd of about 500 people to turn up for the Moscow rally on Bolotnaya Ploshchad, across the Moscow River from the Kremlin. It starts at 2:00 p.m.

Worldwide, more than 25 million people have died from AIDS, including 4,357 in Russia. There are about 280,000 registered cases of HIV and AIDS in Russia, but Pokrovsky said the real number is closer to 1 million.

A Serious HIV Education Problem

Moscow Times Staff Writer