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900,000 out of 37 mln HIV-positive people live in Russia, health minister says

Veronika Skvortsova noted that special tests need to be conducted to fight against the infection and prevent it

MOSCOW, December 1. /TASS/. An estimated 37 million people have been infected with HIV and 900,000 of them live in Russia, Health Minister Veronika Skvortsova told a student forum "Stop HIV together!" in Moscow’s Peoples' Friendship University of Russia.

"If in many countries of the world the tide has been turned and we see a trend that this infection has stopped spreading, in the countries of Eastern Europe and Central Asia we see that this trend continues," Skvortsova said.

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About 20% of HIV-positive Russians do not know of their illness — expert

The minister noted that special tests need to be conducted to fight against the infection and prevent it. Last year, more than 32 million people in Russia underwent these tests free of charge.

Svetlana Medvedeva, who chairs the Social and Cultural Initiatives Fund, noted: "Today, the problem of HIV/AIDS transmission is very acute, AIDS has no national borders, it is still a truly global disaster. Young people are still in a high risk group."

The fourth nationwide Stop HIV/AIDS campaign is held in Russia on November 27-December 3. The event is organized by the Social and Cultural Initiatives Fund under the Russian Health Ministry, the Ministry of Science and Education, Russia’s consumer rights watchdog and other agencies. The campaign comes on occasion of the World AIDS Day marked on December 1. The goal is to draw public attention to HIV-related problems in Russia.

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