MOSCOW, July 29. /TASS/. The United Nations’ forecast of a possible new global HIV epidemic has objective grounds and is a cause for concern, epidemiologist, Academician of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Deputy President of the Russian Academy of Education Gennady Onishchenko told TASS.

Earlier, a report from the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) said that further cuts in funding for HIV control programs could lead to a new outbreak of the epidemic and reverse the progress made in recent decades.

"The wording really has an objective basis for such conclusions - that this may lead to an increase in the number of infected people, as well as to the fact that those already infected will have a harder time with their infection. We have to worry about that too. An infection is an infection, it doesn't obey laws, it doesn't need a visa," Onishchenko said.

He said that it is important not only to provide treatment to those infected in their home country at least at the previous level, but also to think about what is happening in other countries, especially in third-world countries. According to the scholar, it's crucial that richer countries allocate money for HIV treatment in third-world countries where there is no budget for this or decent medicine. Now there is indeed a decrease in financing because the economies of many countries are suffering.