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HIV Infection in City Outstrips Rest of Russia

By Irina Titova

Staff Writer

The rate of HIV infection in St. Petersburg is 2.5 times higher than the Russian average, the acting head doctor at the city’s AIDS Prevention and Treatment Center said, Interfax reported on Monday.

There are 686 cases for every 100,000 people, figures released by Galina Volkova of the center show. By contrast, in Russia as a whole there are an average of 260 cases for every 100,000 people, she said.

The gloomy statistics were released last week at the first meeting of the coordination council for HIV and AIDS at City Hall. The council was founded in order to coordinate the activities of state and public organizations working in HIV/AIDS prevention, and to increase the effectiveness of measures taken against the epidemic in the city.

Meanwhile, the total number of HIV-positive people registered in St. Petersburg since 1987 now totals 37,687 people, Volkova said.

Volkova said there are twice as many men infected with HIV in the city as women. At the same time 37 percent of street children are infected.

However, the total number of HIV-positive people registered in 2007 was 15.6 percent lower than in 2006. In 2007 HIV-positive mothers gave birth to 355 children.

Almost every tenth HIV-positive person in Russia is from St. Petersburg. During the last ten years the number of HIV-infected people has grown by more than 100 times.

In 2005, at least 250 people died from AIDS. In 2006, 501 people died, RIA Novosti reported.

Heterosexual transmission has now become the most common method, with 34 percent of transmissions caused by needle-sharing by drug users, according to Alexei Mazus, head of the Moscow City Center for AIDS Prevention.

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