Moscow Claims It’s Winning Battle with HIV/AIDS But Statistics Suggest Otherwise, ‘To Be Precise’ Portal Says

Paul Goble
    Staunton, Nov. 28 – Russian Health Minister Mikhail Murashko said this week that HIV infections in Russia had reached “an historical minimum” (kommersant.ru/doc/7326840); but figures suggest that his optimism is misplaced and that the situation is far worse than officials acknowledge, even as they stop publishing the kind of data that would allow a real assessment.
    That is the conclusion Kseniya Babikhina, an investigator for the To Be Precise news portal, offers in a detailed new article (tochno.st/materials/minzdrav-uvelicil-biudzet-na-lecenie-vic-na-tret-no-prakticeski-zakryl-dannye-o-cisle-liudei-s-takim-diagnozom-glavnoe-o-situacii-s-vic-v-rossii).
    Although some Russian government agencies continue to publish figures about HIV/AIDS, the health ministry this year appears to have stopped, something that makes it impossible to know exactly how many Russians are now suffering from this disease and what share of those with it are receiving treatment.
    Moreover, independent researchers have found that in the last several years, fewer and fewer people in high risk groups are being tested at all, something that suggests the claims officials like Murashko are making can’t be taken seriously as large numbers of people with the disease aren’t being identified as such.
    Indeed, international assessments now suggest that half of all new cases of HIV in Europe are in Russia, a conclusion that suggests that the numbers of HIV/AIDS cases in that country are far higher than Moscow acknowledges (thelancet.com/journals/lanhiv/article/PIIS2352-3018(24)00212-1/fulltext).