MOSCOW, November 30. /TASS/. About 30,000-35,000 HIV patients whose average age is 40 die in Russia every year, Head of the Special Research Department for Disease Control and AIDS Prevention at the Russian sanitary watchdog’s Central Research Institute of Epidemiology Vadim Pokrovsky said at Tuesday’s roundtable on ways to extend the healthy life expectancy of HIV patients.
"The average age of death stands at about 40 years among Russian HIV patients. These people could work for another 20 years," he noted. "About 30,000-35,000 people with HIV die in our country every year, most of them are of working age. This is a serious problem," the expert pointed out.
According to Pokrovsky, Russia annually spends some 60 bln rubles ($804.4 mln) on combating HIV. "There is a wide range of economic losses related to HIV and we must do our utmost to stop it," he added.