“Statistical Data Manipulation”
Joint Program Data The UN on HIV/AIDS, “replicated” by the media, “arbitrarily and biasedly interprets figures from various sources”, says in a statement published on the website of the Ministry of Health of Russia.
“The mass media published alleged UNAIDS data that include the Russian Federation in the top five countries in the world in terms of the spread of HIV infection, which is not true and is another propaganda provocation directed against our country,” the report says.
The department stressed that “these data do not allow us to assess the situation with the spread of HIV infection in Russia.” The Ministry of Health added that HIV testing coverage in the country is “one of the highest in the world” – almost 30% of the population. According to the agency, in comparison with 2000, it “almost doubled” – from 24 million people to 42 million in 2021.
“This allows you to receive the most objective data, identify patients at the early stages of the disease and start treatment in a timely manner, ”the statement emphasizes.
The Ministry of Health added that in Russia “coverage of patients with antiretroviral therapy is amounted to more than 84%.
“The ongoing preventive and therapeutic measures make it possible to increase the life expectancy of patients and reduce the risk of spreading the disease. The incidence of HIV infection in Russia is steadily declining: <…> by 2.0% in 2021 compared to 2020,” the ministry says.
According to his data, the total incidence from 2018 to 2021 decreased by 31.4% – from 58.6 to 40.2 people per 100 thousand population.
“At the end of 2021, the number of people living with HIV in Russia amounted to 851,754 people, which is about 0.58% of the country’s population <…> All information on morbidity and mortality from HIV infection is widely available and officially published by Rosstat and the Ministry of Health of Russia and Rospotrebnadzor, ”the statement says.
At the same time, the Ministry of Health continued , “despite the obvious successes of Russian medicine, attempts are increasingly being made to falsify statistical data on the situation with HIV infection” in the country. The agency emphasized that in the Russian Federation the disease control program is funded from the federal budget, while other countries usually use grants provided by UNAIDS, among others.
Ahead of Uganda and Tanzania
The other day the Joint United Nations Program on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) and the European Center for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) published data, according to which Russia, at the end of 2021, ranked <…> fifth place among the countries of the world in terms of the highest rate of spread of HIV infection.
From these organizations it follows that the Russian Federation surpassed Tanzania and Uganda. In total, in 2021, were infected with HIV 1.5 million people. Half of these cases were in 10 countries.
of all cases of HIV infection. The second line went to Mozambique – 6.5%, the third – to Nigeria – 4.9%, the fourth – to India with 4.2%. Russia was ranked fifth in the study, with 3.9% of infections detected in the country.
UNAIDS noted that although the number of new cases has decreased from 2.9 million in 2000 almost doubled, the number of people living with HIV worldwide has increased from 26 million to more than 38 million over the past two decades. The organization attributed this to the fact that, thanks to advances in treatment, HIV patients are now living longer.
“In 2021, in the WHO European Region, the rate of new HIV diagnoses varied widely across countries. The highest rates per 100,000 population (above 15.0) were in the Russian Federation (40.2), followed by Ukraine (37.1), Republic of Moldova (25.9), Kazakhstan (18.7), Cyprus (16 .5), Belarus (15.6) and Armenia (15.2),” the report says.
with data later cited by the Russian Ministry of Health.
The document also states that new infections in Russia “accounted for 55% of all cases in the WHO European Region and 70% of cases reported in the East” of Europe.