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HIV Epidemic Raging In Russia's Fourth Largest City

Nearly 1 in 50 residents of Ekaterinburg are HIV-positive.

An HIV epidemic is plaguing one of Russia’s largest cities, where nearly one in 50 people is infected with the virus.

According to Deputy Health Minister Tatiana Savinova, 27,000 residents of Ekaterinburg, the country’s fourth largest metropolis, are HIV-positive. That works out to about 1.8% of the metropolis’ 1.5 million citizens.

Experts say HIV infections in the former Soviet Union are on the rise, aided by stigma, a lack of education and bans on preventative measures like methadone or intravenous drug users and LGBT-inclusive sex education. (The country’s ban on “gay propaganda” also keeps vital information out of the hands of those who need it.)

Nationwide, some 800,000 Russians are registered as living with HIV, though its believed the number is closer to 1.5 million. In 2015 alone, 100,000 new cases were reported.

According to the AP, some officials expect the number of infections to double every five years.

“The situation is identical in all the country’s industrial cities,” Ekaterinburg Mayor Evgeny Roisman said. “It’s just that Yekaterinburg is tackling the detection of infected people and is not afraid to talk about it.”

Intravenous drug use accounts for most new infections in Russia’s Sverdlovsk Region, of which Ekaterinburg is the capital, as drug traffickers travel from Central Asia through the region en route to Europe.

Ekaterinburg Stadium is being renovated to host games during the 2018 FIFA World Cup, which will be held in several cities in Russia.

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