NEW YORK -- In recent years, HIV/AIDS infection in Russia has been spreading at the fastest rate in the world. Several experts estimate that more than 1.5 million Russians are HIV-infected at present. According to World Bank estimates, that number could total 5.4 million to 14.5 million by 2020 unless the epidemic is contained. Such a large number of people with HIV/AIDS will have a significant impact on Russia's social stability, national security and economic development.
As in other countries, AIDS in Russia first appeared among gay men, then spread to and through the intravenous drug-user population and commercial sex workers. It is now moving into the general heterosexual population.
The spread has been accompanied by an explosive increase in the incidence of other sexually transmitted diseases as well as drug-resistant tuberculosis. According to the Red Cross, Russia has 340,000 cases of TB, and every year there are 130,000 new cases, many of them multidrug resistant.