Russia
Russia has the second-highest HIV prevalence in Eastern Europe and Eurasia: 1.1 percent in the adult population. According to the Joint United Nations Program on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS), an estimated 940,000 people in Russia were living with HIV in 2007. The first cases of HIV in the country were diagnosed among men who have sex with men in 1987. Russia’s HIV prevalence remained very low until 1996, when 1,515 new cases connected to infections among injecting drug users were reported. While the pace of the country’s HIV epidemic has slowed since the late 1990s, it continues to grow. According to UNAIDS, a decline in new cases occurred between 2001 and 2003, but since then the number of new cases has continued to increase.
Beginning in 1998, USAID’s HIV/AIDS first activities in Russia focused on HIV prevention among youth. Since 2005, the focus has been on most at risk populations (MARPs). USAID and a partner organization launched PreventAIDS in 2005. The program strengthened the nongovernmental and governmental sectors to improve MARPs’ access to HIV/AIDS prevention and treatment services and built institutional capacity to deliver high-quality services to special risk groups. Since its inception, PreventAIDS’ prevention interventions have reached 21,500 sex workers; 32,400 IDUs; 6,500 PLWHA; and 40,600 vulnerable youth.
View the full USAID HIV/AIDS Health Profile for Russia - September 2010 [PDF,
308KB].
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