“A generalized epidemic”: more than 3% of Russian men aged between 40 and 50 are affected by HIV

Alarming figures. In as many as 27 regions of Russia, the HIV epidemic has reached a generalized stage, announced Vasily Akimkin, director of the Central Research Institute of Epidemiology of Rospotrebnadzor, a major Russian state scientific and research center specializing in infectious diseases and epidemiology. This means that the virus no longer threatens only risk groups, but is spreading among large sections of the population, specifies the Moscow Times.

In these 27 regions, more than 1% of pregnant women are HIV positive. In the regions of Kemerovo, Irkutsk and Sverdlovsk, more than 2% of the inhabitants are affected by the infection, or more than one in 50 inhabitants.

In 15 years, the average age has increased from 32 to 44

Nationwide, more than 3 percent of men aged 40 to 50 are HIV positive, according to Natalia Ladnaya, senior researcher at the Department of AIDS Prevention and Control of the Central Institute of Epidemiology of Rospotrebnadzor. The average age of infected people has increased from 32 to 44 years over the last 15 years, and in two thirds of new cases, contamination occurred during heterosexual intercourse.

Inadequate therapeutic coverage in Russia remains a major problem. Only half of people living with HIV in the country have an undetectable viral load, meaning at least 600,000 people are still actively spreading the virus.

When a patient follows effective treatment, their viral load becomes undetectable, which completely blocks sexual transmission. However, among people who take antiretrovirals, the virus is only neutralized in 77 to 78% of them, a figure far from the WHO reference threshold of 95%.