HEALTH: Russia Counts the Cost of AIDS

By Kester Kenn Klomegah Reprint | | Print |

Kester Kenn Klomegah

MOSCOW, Apr 11 2005 (IPS) - The Russian government is turning increasingly towards businesses to support its fight against AIDS.

The move comes after health experts confirmed registration of more than 312,000 HIV positive people in the country. The real number is estimated to be closer to a million in a country with a population of 104 million.

Russia is turning to the private sector, inevitably to the pharmaceuticals industry primarily, as the government begins to acknowledge at last the full extent of AIDS.

"The numbers have exceeded all the estimates of experts," deputy prime minister Alexander Zhukov told an AIDS conference recently. "The growth of AIDS has gone beyond being a medical problem, and has become an issue of strategic, social and economic security of the country within the current demographic situation in Russia."

Russia’s population is declining, and the World Bank has said that the spread of HIV/AIDS will hasten depletion of the workforce. It has warned of a 4 percent drop in gross domestic product by 2010 as a result.

"The spread of the virus has reached a critical level," Vadim Pokrovsky, head of the federal AIDS centre told the conference. "One hundred get infected everyday. UNAIDS estimates that about 860,000 HIV positive people currently live in the country, and the spread of the disease in Russia is the world’s fastest."

Zhukov said the government "now understands the scale and importance of this problem and realises the need to prevent the uncontrolled development of the epidemic." Pharmaceutical companies can play a central role in a new partnership between government and businesses to fight AIDS, he said.

Zhukov suggested that this might even present an opportunity to pharmaceutical companies to become a leader in the production of antiretroviral medication and for the development of an HIV vaccine. Drug companies could also sponsor prevention and education programmes and help reduce discrimination against HIV/AIDS patients in accessing care and treatment, he said.

The problem is worsened by the astronomical cost of treatment.

Health minister Mikhail Zurabov has said his ministry has concluded agreements with top international pharmaceutical companies that will enable HIV/AIDS-infected Russians to pay less for their medication, Russian news agencies reported.

Zurabov was reported to have said earlier that a Russian infected with HIV – the virus that causes AIDS – would currently have to spend about 10,000 dollars a year on medicines – a princely sum for most Russians. Under new arrangement they will pay about 3,000 dollars.

International public health consultant Cesar Chelala said the Russian government needs to urgently increase its current funding levels for prevention and treatment. Prevention efforts are almost nonexistent at present, he said.

In 2003 the government provided about four million dollars to fight HIV/AIDS, a paltry sum compared to the 1.3 billion dollars from federal funds that President Vladimir Putin allocated for celebration of the 300th anniversary of St. Petersburg, Chelala said.

"HIV/AIDS has now reached ominous proportions in Russia, posing serious consequences for life expectancy, demographic growth and economic development," Chelala told IPS. "Unless more effective treatment and prevention measures are implemented soon, the effect on Russia’s population and on its economic development and political security will be nothing short of catastrophic."

He said AIDS has been accompanied by an explosive increase in other sexually transmitted infections. Russia has syphilis infection rates that are hundreds of times higher than those of Western Europe.

Russian experts are exploring what role businesses other than pharmaceutical companies can play in fighting HIV/AIDS, such as workplace prevention programmes, community interventions and partnerships with civic organisations.

A survey conducted by Transatlantic Partners Against AIDS, an international non-governmental organisation that fights AIDS in Russia and the former Soviet republics has demonstrated the need for businesses to become involved in the fight against HIV/AIDS.

The survey of human resource managers of 137 Russian companies showed that many companies lack awareness of basic HIV/AIDS information and knowledge about how the epidemic is affecting Russia. They do not have strategies in place to fight the disease among their employees.

Many companies "badly underestimate the destructive impact an AIDS epidemic may have on economic competitiveness," according to the survey. However, experts noted several "hopeful mental shifts" that might improve the situation, such as the presence of business leaders at meetings in Moscow for implementation of prevention and education programmes.

"It is critical that the Russian government, business community and public work together to identify and implement effective solutions to Russia’s HIV/AIDS problem," John Tedstrom, president of Transatlantic Partners Against AIDS told IPS.