MOSCOW, September 29./TASS/. The rate of HIV infection cases per 100,000 population is ten times higher in Russia than in European countries. Russia reports 1.1 million HIV-infected people, with less than 2% among them being young people, Natalya Ladnaya, a senior researcher from the Russian sanitary watchdog’s Central Research Institute of Epidemiology, said on Wednesday.
"In 2020, we diagnosed fewer HIV infections — 60,000 new cases. This is still a lot, since for comparison — only 25,000 new HIV cases were reported throughout all the countries of the European Union," Ladnaya said. "If we compare the incidence rate per 100,000 population, the incidence rate here is ten times higher than in the countries of the European Union," the expert said.
At the start of the 2000s, almost one in four among the infected people was younger than 20, she added. "Now, literally less than 2%" are in this age group," she stressed. Ladnaya also said that 400,000 people have died in Russia since the first HIV patient was reported in the country back in 1987.