Rospotrebnadzor says HIV screening among vulnerable groups has declined

The most vulnerable groups of citizens to the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) have become less examined. This was announced on Sunday, December 1, by Vadim Pokrovsky, head of the specialized research department of AIDS epidemiology and prevention at the Central Research Institute of Epidemiology of Rospotrebnadzor.

Most often, according to Pokrovsky, people are infected through heterosexual contacts, which is the usual way of HIV transmission through sexual contacts between men and women. After in frequency comes HIV transmission through intravenous drug use, the academician specified.

"According to the data we have, the representatives of the most vulnerable to HIV contingents of the population, which include drug users and men who have sex with men (the LGBT movement is recognized as an extremist organization and banned in Russia), as well as sex workers," the academician said in an interview with Interfax.

At the same time, Pokrovsky called it an alarming signal that those living with HIV are increasingly being found among the rural population and those living in regions far from the center. According to him, this may indicate an epidemic of the disease.

Earlier, on November 25, Russian Health Minister Mikhail Murashko said that since 2016, the incidence of HIV infection in Russia has decreased by 40%, reaching a historic low. The head of the Russian Ministry of Health stressed that today much attention is paid to the organization of prevention, diagnosis and therapy of the disease. According to him, the epidemic process of HIV infection is under stable control in Russia.