Onishchenko Announced [the Rise In HIV Incidence]

Onishchenko announced [the rise in HIV incidence]

In 2011, more than 60 thousand new cases of human immunodeficiency virus infection were detected in Russia. According to the country's Chief Sanitary Doctor Gennady Onishchenko, there are 43.4 cases of infection for every 100 thousand Russians. He considers the situation with HIV in Russia as an epidemic and associates the increase in the incidence with Afghan heroin.

Gennady Onishchenko. Image from the site novostnik.ru. /

62 thousand new cases of HIV infection were detected in Russia over the past year, Interfax reports. Such statistics were presented on March 12 by the head of Rospotrebnadzor, Chief Sanitary Doctor of the country Gennady Onishchenko at a press conference dedicated to World Consumer Rights Protection Day.

"The incidence rate was 43.4 per 100 thousand population. We have grown by 5 percent compared to 2010," he said. However, the number of new HIV infections varies greatly by region. The highest incidence rate was found in Siberia, the Volga region and the Urals. The lowest rates are observed in the South, North Caucasian and Far Eastern districts. In the central part of the country, "although the numbers are high, there is no growth," noted Gennady Onishchenko.

In recent years, the age distribution of HIV-infected people has changed. "The situation has shifted to the cohort of 30-40 years old, 42.1 percent of all HIV-infected in 2011 - this is the age group of 30-40 years," - said the Chief Sanitary Doctor. A large number of new HIV infections were previously observed among adolescents and young people - 24.7 percent in 2001, he said. Over ten years, this figure has dropped to 1.8 percent.

Onishchenko stressed that "the epidemic is being feminized" and more than half of all new patients are women.

The country's chief sanitary doctor linked the increase in the number of HIV-infected with the use of Afghan heroin by injection. "They get infected with one syringe. Afghanistan is a supplier of heavy opiates. Afghan heroin, which, in the absence of practical borders, goes directly here, to us," he said. According to him, in 2011, 56.7 percent of patients contracted HIV in this way.

The number of HIV transmission is also growing through sexual contact, Onishchenko stressed. Over the past three years, this figure has grown by 4.5 percent. According to the Federal Scientific and Methodological Center for the Prevention and Control of AIDS at the end of 2011, the total number of HIV-infected among the citizens of our country was more than 630 thousand people.