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‘Propagandist provocation’. Moscow slams UN report on high HIV infection rates in Russia as fabricated

The Russian Health Ministry denies the report that Russia ranks in top-5 countries globally in HIV infection rates, the ministry made a statement on its website.

“Media have published alleged data of the UNAIDS that puts Russia in top-5 countries around the world in highest HIV spread rates which is not true and represents just another propagandist provocation aimed against our country,” the statement reads.

The ministry claims that the data published by the UNAIDS “interprets data from various sources that collect information about the HIV/AIDS epidemic infections across various years of observation on a selective and biassed basis”.

The ministry retaliates by claiming that the HIV infection rates in Russia are actually decreasing from year to year. Moreover, Russia is one of the few countries that have its own programme to combat the spread of HIV, the statement notes.

“Other countries normally resort to grants provided by international organisations like the UNAIDS and, correspondingly, only implement those measures that are financially covered by them,” the health agency adds.

The latest report drafted by the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) and the European Center for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) was published on 7 December. The document points out that Russia was ranked in top-5 countries around the world in the highest HIV infection rates in 2021.

According to the organisations, 1.5 million cases of HIV transmission were registered in 2021 globally, Russia accounted for 3.9% of them.

South Africa comes first (14%), followed by Mozambique (6.5%), Nigeria (4.9%), and India (4.2%).

The Russian health watchdog reported in early November that 1% of the Russian population (up to 1.5 million people) live with HIV. Forecasts suggest that in 2020-2030 there will be 660,000 new HIV cases recorded in Russia, taking into account the national HIV infection prevention policy.

Meanwhile, HIV specialist at the Russian ministry Alexey Mazus said that the HIV infection rates are dropping in Russia.

According to him, there were 851,754 people living with HIV in Russia in 2021, while 58,788 of them were diagnosed in 2021.

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