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Over 20,000 HIV-positive people died in Russia last year

The death toll from HIV infection in Russia grew 2.2% year-on-year

© Egor Aleev/TASS

MOSCOW, July 31. /TASS/. More than 20,000 HIV-positive Russians died in 2018, with the death toll related to this infection growing 2.2% year-on-year, a report of the Russian Health Ministry’s research center revealed on Wednesday.

"In 2018, some 20,597 people died of HIV infection, and this is 14 cases per 100,000 citizens," according to the report, titled "Epidemic Situation on HIV infection in Russia in 2018," which was published on the website of the ministry’s Central Scientific and Research Institute for Informing Population.

The death toll from HIV infection in Russia grew 2.2% year-on-year. In 2017, 20,045 HIV-infected people died.

The share of HIV infection as the cause of deaths among Russian citizens from infections and parasitic diseases, has been growing: from 3.9% in 2005 to 57.2% in 2017 and 59.5% in 2018, the survey showed.

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Most Russians (76.7%) who died of HIV last year were people aged between 25 and 55 years. Nearly 16% of these deaths account for people aged between 45 and 54 years. Just 1.1% Russians aged above 65 died of this infection.

A peak in HIV-related deaths among both men and women is the age of 25-34 or 22.3 cases per 100,000.

"HIV infection among young people of working age (18-44 years) is rising to one of top spots of death causes (in 2018)," the study revealed. Russians at this age die of HIV infection more (15.8%) than of cancer (13.1%), respiratory diseases (5.4%), digestive system diseases (14.9%), nervous system (3.6%), heart diseases (8.4%), cerebrovascular diseases (5.1%) and tuberculosis (3.3%)," the report said.

In late 2018, the rate of diagnosed HIV infections grew 1.2%. The highest rates per 100,000 citizens were observed in the Urals (108.2), Siberia (124.9) and Volga (68.2) federal districts. The highest number of HIV infections was recorded in the Irkutsk (200.9), Kemerovo (165.6), Novosibirsk (135.1), Sverdlovsk (132) and Perm (152.5) regions.

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