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Russia’s HIV deaths hit 30K per year amid gaps in early diagnosis and inconsistent treatment availability, undermining dwindling labor force, Russian health official says (www.intellinews.com)

submitted 5 hours ago by thelucky8@beehaw.org to c/news@beehaw.org

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Around 30,000 Russians of working age die annually from HIV, according to Vadim Pokrovsky, the head of Russia’s Federal Methodological Centre for HIV/AIDS Prevention.

This figure continues to rise alongside increasing treatment costs for the government and a lack of early HIV testing.

Speaking to TASS, Pokrovsky revealed that the Russian government spends RUB70bn ($670mn) per year on HIV treatment. The epidemic is exacerbated by the loss of economically active individuals, which Pokrovsky highlighted as a critical economic blow.

“If each year we lose 30,000 young, able-bodied people who could work for another 20-30 years, that is an additional loss [to the economy],” he said.

Russia’s HIV epidemic, which has resulted in 1.7mn infections and nearly 500,000 deaths to date, stems primarily from gaps in early diagnosis and inconsistent treatment availability. Reports indicate that shortages of antiretroviral drugs, including the vital medication Dolutegravir, have emerged due to disrupted supply chains and procurement issues, with some supply tenders being cancelled altogether.

While heterosexual transmission is now the most common means of spreading HIV in Russia, marginalised groups such as drug users, sex workers and gay men remain disproportionately vulnerable. Reduced funding for HIV testing – currently 30% below the recommended levels – has further undermined efforts at early detection, despite calls from medical experts for regular screenings to prevent immune system deterioration.

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[–] blindsight@beehaw.org 10 points 4 hours ago (1 children)

Holy shit, that's huge. I was trying to wrap my head around those numbers.

Russia is about 3½ times Canada's population, so 30K deaths is, per capita, equivalent to about 8.5K deaths in Canada. That's higher than all-cause mortality in Canada from ages 1-35. Just from HIV.

Whoa. That's not good.

Or, another perspective:
More than 1% of Russians are infected with HIV. (Estimated 1.5mm out of ~140mm.)

[–] xavier666@lemm.ee 3 points 3 hours ago (1 children)

More than 1% of Russians are infected with HIV

That seems to be too high. How can it be in a society which is extremely homophobic?

[–] Oneser@lemm.ee 4 points 3 hours ago (1 children)

I'm going to assume this comment is satire and not engage further than this.

[–] xavier666@lemm.ee 1 points 3 hours ago (2 children)

It's not satire. Please forgive me if I have said anything hurtful unknowingly.

[–] armpit_sweaty@beehaw.org 7 points 2 hours ago

Its really easy to spread HIV between gay men and people who do anal because your butts main job is to absorb water from crap and it can absorb semen and hiv virus -

But it's not a gay disease - in some communities where gay people are testing a lot, using condoms and or prep tablets - more straight people are spreading HIV than gay people

And in homophobic societies , there will still be gay and bi people , but less likely to be tested as much because people aren't allowed to ask at the clinic 'do you have sex with men m4m" / can't run campaigns telling gay people to use protection and get tested , so it's a mess , and can spread through society quickly

[–] Shawdow194@fedia.io 3 points 2 hours ago

Just adding more insight from article

While heterosexual transmission is now the most common means of spreading HIV in Russia, marginalised groups such as drug users, sex workers and gay men remain disproportionately vulnerable.