HIV kills on average 80 Russians every day and the number is rising, statistics published earlier this week by the AIDS.Center foundation show.
In the first six months of the year, more than 14,500 Russians died from the immunodeficiency virus, the foundation says, citing figures from the Federal Center for Fighting AIDS. This represents a more than 13-percent increase in HIV deaths compared to the same period last year.
The highest death rates were registered in the Kemerovo, Samara and Irkutsk regions, with up to 44 HIV-related deaths per 100,000 people.
According to the center, there were around 1.1 million registered cases of HIV in late June 2017, with half a million new cases registered in the past five years.
The data excludes Russians who have undergone anonymous testing, and foreign citizens.
“The outlook for the development of the situation remains unfavorable,” the Federal Center for Fighting AIDS was cited as saying.
In the past two years, roughly half of new HIV cases were due to unprotected sexual contact and a slightly lower number, 47 percent, through intravenous drug injections, the center said.
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