2 days ago
3
Vladimir Putin is facing a demographic time bomb (Image: Getty)
Russia is facing an imminent HIV crisis, as new cases surge amid cuts to government funding due to the Ukraine war. Lack of government support has been compounded by bans on foreign AIDS charities amid a general tightening of controls on international organisations.
The Kremlin has for years refused to acknowledge the scale of the HIV epidemic in Russia. The government has provided little to no funding for public health campaigns and sex education. It has also criminalised harm reduction strategies for people who inject drugs and has helped to entrench stigma and discrimation against groups considered most at risk.
Invalid email
We use your sign-up to provide content in ways you've consented to and to improve our understanding of you. This may include adverts from us and 3rd parties based on our understanding. You can unsubscribe at any time. Read our Privacy Policy
Russians take past in an HIV awareness march (Image: Getty)
As part of its attempts to conceal the scale of the problem, Putin's Kremlin has stopped providing official data to the World Health Organisation.
However, recent reports in the country's state media suggest that there are over 1.25 million people infected with the virus - roughly one in a hundred Russians.
Many experts believe that the figure is likely to be an underestimation and the real number is probably much higher.
In 2021, Russia accounted for 3·9% of new HIV infections worldwide — the highest share in the European region and the fifth-highest globally. Additionally, data from the AIDS.CENTER website show that 51,984 new HIV diagnoses were registered in 2024.
This represents an incidence rate of 35·4 per 100 000 people and an estimated prevalence of 831·8 per 100 000 people.
The epidemic was recently concentrated among gay men, prostitutes and drug users.
Worryingly, though, there are indications that the epidemic is expanding intothe general population.
Data for 2023 showed that in at least 16 regions, the proportion of pregnant people with HIV had exceeded 1% - the threshold that is considered suggestive of a generalised epidemic.
At the same time, Russia's birth rate is plunging, with just 1.22 million born last year. The figure is only slightly more than the all-time recorded low of 1.21 million in 1999.
And the number of births is set to decline by 3–5% per year until at least 2029, when a slow recovery is predicted.
English (US) · 