Facts & Myths about spread of HIV & AIDS in Russia
"We have been dating for five months and one night stopped using condoms because we trusted each other". Six months later Cyrill Barsky learnt that his infection had developed into an "acute phase in its classic type". At that time he was only 18 years old. For several weeks he had been suffering from acute tonsillitis, had rashes all over his body, lymphonoids were swollen. Cyrill lost 6 kg and sweated plentifully during the night so he had to change 2-3 towels. "The doctor of my district clinic could not understand what was going on with me", recalls Cyrill. "I looked like a dear boy and she couldn't ever have imagined I had regular sex, especially the gay sex".
One can live
Since the very moment when Cyrill had finally realized he was HIV positive, in three months he went through all stages of comprehension of his HIV+ status. "Like in a textbook: negation, anger, attempts to bargain with Fate, depression, acceptance", calmly recites the young man as he was telling not about himself but about some one else. And it is not a surprise - now Cyrill is a volunteer for "Shagi"(Steps) Foundation Social Centre which cares for people with the same problems. "Our self-help groups are attended by 5-6 "newcomers" every week. If you do not know - I tell you: there is HIV epidemics in my country", stresses Cyrill.
Only seven months later after his diagnosis was confirmed the young man was officially registered with the Moscow Centre for AIDS prevention. At that moment his immune system was on the edge: "I climbed the stairs to the second floor and realized I was out of breath. At that time I had only 160 immune cells in my body (the healthy rate is 600-1200). If the number of my immune cells was less than 60, then I'd have had the AIDS". Luckily, Cyrill in due time began to receive the antiretroviral therapy and now after 4 years he is fine and looks great.
"For some reason many in Russia believe that HIV is equal to death sentence and ARV therapy drugs are extremely expensive and can be bought only in the USA. Actually, the HIV treatment in Russia is not so bad", notes Cyrill. According to his words, one can have free access to special medical help but very few people know about it. "All drugs one can get gratis, in local hospitals and polyclinics HIV+ people are serviced in priority. District doctors are happy when HIV positive patient comes to them because in that case they get 25% bonus to their salary.
The problem is that infected people know little about their rights. "If some doctor would hysterically refuse to service HIV+, he(she) should go directly to that doctor's seniors and threaten with lawsuits because in that case the head of a polyclinic or hospital will definitely loose in the court".
60 000 a year
Nevertheless the number of people in Russia with confirmed HIV status is growing. According to the latest data from the Rospotrebnadzor (a Russian analogue of the American HHS), the spread of HIV infection is 550 cases per 100 thousand people. "Since 1987 Russia has officially registered 860 thousand people with human immune deficit virus", told the DW Mr. Igor Pchelin, the chairman of the federal Russian union of HIV+ people. "And every year around 60 thousand new cases are being detected". For comparison: according to the data of the Deutsche AIDS-Hilfe (DAH), in 2013 Germany registered around 3200 new cases of HIV infection, the total number of HIV+ in that European country is about 80 thousand (the total German population is 80 mln people).
According to Pchelin's words, since 1987 around 130-140 thousand Russians have died from HIV implications. However, the majority of the deceased had died in nineties. "Nowadays, says Cyrill Barsky, one must try hard in order to die from AIDS in Russia. "The biggest problem is to motivate a person as soon as possible to reach the nearest AIDS treatment medical facility". Some do not do that because he (she) is frightened or has psychological refusal. Others - can't to that because they live in one city and registered in another" (In Russia an HIV positive person can get treatment in the city where he(she) was registered (propiska) and not in a place where he (she) is staying at present). Although that problem can be bypassed, adds Mr. Barsky, one can get his ARV medicine by showing the power of attorney in a local pharmacy.
If the majority of HIV carriers in Russia before got infected through intravenous injections, now the main way of infecting is unsafe sex, notes Igor Pchelin. "That tendency got detected 4 years earlier. In some regions such as Orenburg, Chelyabinsk regions, Krasnoyarsk kray, the HIV transmission through intravenous injections is still very high, but in most cities prevention agencies see that HIV is being mostly transmitted through unsafe sex. In Moscow and Saint-Petersburg this number is much higher - every second person got HIV after unsafe sex.
Vulnerable groups
The HIV epidemics in Russia is tightly linked together with absence or lack of the federal state prevention programs, says Igor Pchelin, the chairman of the Russian union of HIV+ people. "Prophylaxis means not only posting billboards about the AIDS danger. "We should closely work with risk groups - injection drug users, sex workers, men having sex with other men (not only gays but bisexuals, prisoners and others)". Volunteer Cyrill says that in order to work with those risk (vulnerable) groups the state has to accept their existence. "Today Russian authorities hypocritically behave like it does not know about the existence of gays, drugs and prostitution".
"For total prevention we need a system when a person from these risk groups would easily have got an advice from various experts - psychologists, doctors, social workers", stresses Alina Maximovskaya, the head of the "Russian narcologists league" Program on prevention of socially significant diseases. "It is not enough to talk with a person for a minute and give him (her) a disposable syringe". She believes that the state itself must be responsible for the establishment of such total HIV-AIDS prevention system. "Vulnerable people with who we work have the right on stable service because grants and NGO programs have certain time period of its activity (created ad hoc).
AIDS-dissidents
Another fact that negatively affects the Russian people's conscience towards HIV infection and makes them careless are the so-called "AIDS-dissidents" who say that AIDS is a pharmaceutics conspiracy, and human immunodeficiency virus itself is not dangerous. According to Mr. Pchelin, these ideas have already become a threat for the society. One can just search in the Russian Google a phrase like "there is no AIDS" and can find dozens of Internet sites with pseudo scientific reflections such as HIV does not necessarily leads to AIDS and drug makers (companies) are "raking over the coals". "And such a position of these AIDS-dissidents is a real plague of the 21st century!", exclaims Cyrill Barsky. "Europe long time ago found these assertions inconsequent because the AIDS issue was very well studied. In Russia these "ideas" are very popular", says Igor Pchelin, and because of these "dissidents mentality" many infected Russian women, for example, refuse ARV therapy during pregnancy and that leads to HIV transmission to their newborn babies. "In 2012 we practically did not have HIV+ babies. If a woman during her pregnancy takes ARV therapy, the threat of HIV transmission to her baby then equals to zero", says Barsky. Nowadays the number of HIV+ babies is again on the rise and new mothers even refuse to give ARV therapy pills to their new born babies... The lack of information is to be blamed for that", stresses Mr. Barsky.
English translation presented by Yerdna Bananes
One can live
Since the very moment when Cyrill had finally realized he was HIV positive, in three months he went through all stages of comprehension of his HIV+ status. "Like in a textbook: negation, anger, attempts to bargain with Fate, depression, acceptance", calmly recites the young man as he was telling not about himself but about some one else. And it is not a surprise - now Cyrill is a volunteer for "Shagi"(Steps) Foundation Social Centre which cares for people with the same problems. "Our self-help groups are attended by 5-6 "newcomers" every week. If you do not know - I tell you: there is HIV epidemics in my country", stresses Cyrill.
Only seven months later after his diagnosis was confirmed the young man was officially registered with the Moscow Centre for AIDS prevention. At that moment his immune system was on the edge: "I climbed the stairs to the second floor and realized I was out of breath. At that time I had only 160 immune cells in my body (the healthy rate is 600-1200). If the number of my immune cells was less than 60, then I'd have had the AIDS". Luckily, Cyrill in due time began to receive the antiretroviral therapy and now after 4 years he is fine and looks great.
"For some reason many in Russia believe that HIV is equal to death sentence and ARV therapy drugs are extremely expensive and can be bought only in the USA. Actually, the HIV treatment in Russia is not so bad", notes Cyrill. According to his words, one can have free access to special medical help but very few people know about it. "All drugs one can get gratis, in local hospitals and polyclinics HIV+ people are serviced in priority. District doctors are happy when HIV positive patient comes to them because in that case they get 25% bonus to their salary.
The problem is that infected people know little about their rights. "If some doctor would hysterically refuse to service HIV+, he(she) should go directly to that doctor's seniors and threaten with lawsuits because in that case the head of a polyclinic or hospital will definitely loose in the court".
60 000 a year
Nevertheless the number of people in Russia with confirmed HIV status is growing. According to the latest data from the Rospotrebnadzor (a Russian analogue of the American HHS), the spread of HIV infection is 550 cases per 100 thousand people. "Since 1987 Russia has officially registered 860 thousand people with human immune deficit virus", told the DW Mr. Igor Pchelin, the chairman of the federal Russian union of HIV+ people. "And every year around 60 thousand new cases are being detected". For comparison: according to the data of the Deutsche AIDS-Hilfe (DAH), in 2013 Germany registered around 3200 new cases of HIV infection, the total number of HIV+ in that European country is about 80 thousand (the total German population is 80 mln people).
According to Pchelin's words, since 1987 around 130-140 thousand Russians have died from HIV implications. However, the majority of the deceased had died in nineties. "Nowadays, says Cyrill Barsky, one must try hard in order to die from AIDS in Russia. "The biggest problem is to motivate a person as soon as possible to reach the nearest AIDS treatment medical facility". Some do not do that because he (she) is frightened or has psychological refusal. Others - can't to that because they live in one city and registered in another" (In Russia an HIV positive person can get treatment in the city where he(she) was registered (propiska) and not in a place where he (she) is staying at present). Although that problem can be bypassed, adds Mr. Barsky, one can get his ARV medicine by showing the power of attorney in a local pharmacy.
If the majority of HIV carriers in Russia before got infected through intravenous injections, now the main way of infecting is unsafe sex, notes Igor Pchelin. "That tendency got detected 4 years earlier. In some regions such as Orenburg, Chelyabinsk regions, Krasnoyarsk kray, the HIV transmission through intravenous injections is still very high, but in most cities prevention agencies see that HIV is being mostly transmitted through unsafe sex. In Moscow and Saint-Petersburg this number is much higher - every second person got HIV after unsafe sex.
Vulnerable groups
The HIV epidemics in Russia is tightly linked together with absence or lack of the federal state prevention programs, says Igor Pchelin, the chairman of the Russian union of HIV+ people. "Prophylaxis means not only posting billboards about the AIDS danger. "We should closely work with risk groups - injection drug users, sex workers, men having sex with other men (not only gays but bisexuals, prisoners and others)". Volunteer Cyrill says that in order to work with those risk (vulnerable) groups the state has to accept their existence. "Today Russian authorities hypocritically behave like it does not know about the existence of gays, drugs and prostitution".
"For total prevention we need a system when a person from these risk groups would easily have got an advice from various experts - psychologists, doctors, social workers", stresses Alina Maximovskaya, the head of the "Russian narcologists league" Program on prevention of socially significant diseases. "It is not enough to talk with a person for a minute and give him (her) a disposable syringe". She believes that the state itself must be responsible for the establishment of such total HIV-AIDS prevention system. "Vulnerable people with who we work have the right on stable service because grants and NGO programs have certain time period of its activity (created ad hoc).
AIDS-dissidents
Another fact that negatively affects the Russian people's conscience towards HIV infection and makes them careless are the so-called "AIDS-dissidents" who say that AIDS is a pharmaceutics conspiracy, and human immunodeficiency virus itself is not dangerous. According to Mr. Pchelin, these ideas have already become a threat for the society. One can just search in the Russian Google a phrase like "there is no AIDS" and can find dozens of Internet sites with pseudo scientific reflections such as HIV does not necessarily leads to AIDS and drug makers (companies) are "raking over the coals". "And such a position of these AIDS-dissidents is a real plague of the 21st century!", exclaims Cyrill Barsky. "Europe long time ago found these assertions inconsequent because the AIDS issue was very well studied. In Russia these "ideas" are very popular", says Igor Pchelin, and because of these "dissidents mentality" many infected Russian women, for example, refuse ARV therapy during pregnancy and that leads to HIV transmission to their newborn babies. "In 2012 we practically did not have HIV+ babies. If a woman during her pregnancy takes ARV therapy, the threat of HIV transmission to her baby then equals to zero", says Barsky. Nowadays the number of HIV+ babies is again on the rise and new mothers even refuse to give ARV therapy pills to their new born babies... The lack of information is to be blamed for that", stresses Mr. Barsky.
English translation presented by Yerdna Bananes
