The problems of HIV-infected people have not gone away

Head of the Research Department of Epidemiology and AIDS Prevention of the Central Research Institute of Epidemiology of Rospotrebnadzor Vadim Pokrovsky spoke at a briefing at the NSN.

As Vadim Pokrovsky explained, HIV infection is secretive, and in order to identify it, you need to examine the blood for antibodies to HIV:

“Starting from 1987, we have been examining the population of the Russian Federation and during this time we have identified 1 million 562 thousand people with HIV who definitely have antibodies. The disease is not curable, and if there are antibodies, it means that the person is infected. Over the past years, more than 400 thousand of them have already died, and now officially we can say that as of January 1, there were 1 million 137 thousand HIV-infected people in the Russian Federation. (…) Here we usually have a discussion with the Ministry of Health, as they give a lower figure – 850 thousand, but these are only those people who have antibodies to HIV, who turned to AIDS centers, brought a passport, SNILS, and they were included in the National Register of HIV Patients. Registration in this register entitles you to receive free treatment.”

As Vadim Pokrovsky clarified, now the proportion of people infected with HIV in the age category of 30-40 years is from 3 to 5% in men and about 3% in women:

“This is a disease of active age, and it poses a national threat, because it is no longer just a demographic problem. (…) Last year, 32,000 Russians living with HIV died in the Russian Federation. The average age of the deceased is 40 years.

At the same time, according to him, if earlier it was believed that mainly homosexuals and drug addicts were infected with HIV, now 70% of cases of infection occur during normal heterosexual sexual intercourse. In addition, the number of infected women is growing, which exacerbates the problem of transmitting this dangerous disease to their offspring. Therefore, all pregnant women are now tested for HIV, and if antibodies are detected, they receive special treatment, which gives a great chance that the child will be born healthy.

“All this is a very big burden on healthcare, because the free treatment that HIV-infected people who turn to AIDS centers receive free of charge also costs a lot of money. 31 billion rubles a year is spent on the purchase of necessary drugs. But after all, it is still necessary to serve special medical institutions, and all this medical part costs about 61 billion rubles a year, and this figure is growing every year, because there is no cure for HIV. And, for example, last year there were 71 thousand newly detected cases. That is, this problem is growing,” stated the head of the research department of epidemiology and AIDS prevention of the Central Research Institute of Epidemiology of Rospotrebnadzor.

As Vadim Pokrovsky reminded at the end of the briefing, then (if they survive) those infected with HIV fall ill with AIDS, while the average duration between infection and AIDS is about 10 years.

Sergei Ishkov.