Russia Succeeds In Stopping HIV Spread After Years Of Declining Infections - Watchdog

Russia Succeeds in Stopping HIV Spread After Years of Declining Infections - Watchdog

Russia has managed to halt the spread of the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) after five years of declining infection rates, the head of the national health and epidemic watchdog, Rospotrebnadzor, said.

MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 29th November, 2018) Russia has managed to halt the spread of the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) after five years of declining infection rates, the head of the national health and epidemic watchdog, Rospotrebnadzor, said.

"The growth rate dropped from 13 percent in 2013 to only 2 percent in 2017 and reached minus 2 percent in the first 10 months of this year, meaning we have successfully stopped the viral spread," Anna Popova told reporters.

An HIV surveillance report released this week by the World Health Organization estimated 159,420 new infection cases were diagnosed in Europe in 2017, including 104,402 cases in Russia. It said Russia and Ukraine contributed to 75 percent of newly detected infections.

Popova argued that Russia's vigorous monitoring skewed the findings of the report. She said up to 30 percent of the country's population was tested for HIV last year. The number of those checked rose 13 percent in 2018.