AIDS experts say Russia needs new HIV strategy

MOSCOW – AIDS experts urged Russian officials on Wednesday to scrap their abstinence-based strategy for curbing the spread of HIV, saying the country's fast-growing epidemic could be entering a dangerous new phase.

AIDS specialists meeting here urged Russia to adopt successful strategies such as needle exchange programs and heroin substitutes such as methadone for drug addicts.

The calls came in the face of a doubling in the number of HIV infections in Russia in the past eight years and despite evidence that in this region the virus is increasingly spread by heterosexual sex.

The rapid growth of the epidemic in Russia is in contrast to sub-Saharan Africa and South and Southeast Asia, where prevalence of the virus fell during the same eight-year period, according to UNAIDS, the United Nations AIDS agency.

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Hatuey said:

AIDS experts say Russia needs new HIV strategy - Yahoo! News



Africa engages in a combination of telling people to reduce the amount of sex they have or to not have sex at all but provides them with sufficient knowledge of STIs, protection etc. and this all together reduces the number of new infections and unwanted pregnancies. Meanwhile Russia engages in an abstinence only education(which I am sure is rooted in the deeply religious beliefs of most Russians) and AIDS infections rise. VERY interesting argument for doing away with the concept of abstinence only.

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jamesrage said:

Are you suggesting that we give Russia **** loads of our tax payer dollars too?

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