MOSCOW, November 21 (RIA Novosti) - Russia is planning to allocate $104 million in federal funds in 2006 to fight HIV/AIDS in the country, a more than 20-fold increase on last year's $4.5mln outlay, a leading Russian expert said Monday.
Head of the Federal HIV/AIDS Research Center Vadim Pokrovsky said half of the money would go to finance medical treatment of people suffering from HIV/AIDS, with the number of officially registered HIV cases having topped 335,000. Many experts, including Pokrovsky himself, have put the actual number of HIV patients in the country close on 1 million. About 8,000 of those officially registered have died already.
Pokrovsky said the allocations planned for next year would be enough to provide medical care for 30,000 HIV-infected persons, but stressed the importance of reducing the cost of life-supporting therapies so that more patients could benefit from the funds available.
He warned that the rapid spread of HIV/AIDS in Russia could have a highly negative impact on the demographic situation in Russia, as well as on the economy.
Pokrovsky said 2006 could be a turning point in the fight against HIV/AIDS in Russia, with substantial aid expected from international organizations, such as the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria.
Mikhail Grishankov, deputy chair of the Security Committee in the State Duma, said parliament's lower house had set up a task force to deal with HIV/AIDS-related issues.
"We are preparing a meeting of parliament members from the Group of Eight [leading industrialized nations], to be held in the run-up to the next G8 summit. This meeting will be aimed at consolidating efforts in the fight against HIV," he said.
Grishankov also announced that on May 15-17, 2006, Moscow would host an international conference on the fight against HIV/AIDS in Central Asia and Europe. The forum is expected to draw more than 1,500 delegates from all across the former Soviet Union and beyond.
