Government center says Russia must adopt methadone and sex ed to stem HIV epidemic
Vadim Pokrovsky, the head the Russian Federal AIDS Center, announced today that Russia’s HIV epidemic has become a national security threat. Pokrovsky says 933,000 Russians have been infected with the disease since 1987. As many as 192,000 of these people have died, according to data from Rospotrebnadzor, a state monitoring agency.
“In our country, there are 300 new cases of infection every day. I think we’ll get our millionth officially recorded case of HIV infection by the end of the year. If the situation doesn’t change, that figure will double in 4-5 years,” Pokrovsky said.
Pokrovsky is calling on Russian authorities to introduce substitution (methadone) treatment for drug addicts, as well as sex education in schools, arguing that this dual approach has helped stopped the HIV epidemic in Germany. “Unfortunately,” he said, “there is a large number of hysterical women in Russia’s parliament today, who scream about the impermissibility of fornication instead of having a calm discussion about this issue.”
In response, Duma deputy Liudmila Stebenkova said Pokrovsky “acts like a typical agent working against the interests of his own state.” Stebenkova says Pokrovsky’s claims about the spread of HIV in Russia are false, adding that sex education classes in school would only increase children’s interest in sex.
At the last National Anti-Drug Convention, Tatiana Klimenko, the undersecretary of Russia’s Ministry of Health, called methadone treatment a “destructive phenomenon that [others] are trying to impose on Russia.”
- Russia’s Federal Drug Control Service has consistently opposed the introduction of methadone clinics, saying methadone is a dangerous narcotic. Russia’s Ministry of Health has supported this position.