Fighting HIV where no-one admits it's a problem
BBC News, 20 May 2015 - The phrase "Aids epidemic" awakens distant memories in most of Europe, Australia or the Americas, where infection rates have generally been in decline for years. But as former UK Health Secretary Lord Fowler explains, the phrase is not used in Russia either - despite failed policies that have allowed infection rates to soar.
For years Russia has remained remarkably silent on the challenge it faces from HIV and Aids. Now that silence has been broken by an epidemiologist who has been working in the field for more than two decades - and he calls the situation "a national catastrophe". (...)
There are about one million people living with HIV today in Russia and year on year the rate of infection is rising, unlike sub-Saharan Africa where the rate of increase is slowing. This is according to Russia's official figures, which almost everyone agrees are a substantial underestimate of the true position.