"Take the plague-present-day medication takes a mere week to cure it. HIV is quite different. We cannot fight it for now. The virus incorporates in the cellular genome, and it is hard to oust it. The human body can go away with, say, the influenza virus, but it is defenceless against HIV. There are certainly 294,500 HIV carriers in Russia today.
"Sexual contagion now predominates. In certain parts of Russia, however, intravenous narcotic dispensation prevails. Drug addiction took an epidemic scope in the 1990s. The drug mafia was holding sway in Russia at that time. A great many got on the syringe then," said the expert.
Now, ordinary law-abiding people are endangered worse with every coming day. Heterosexual contagion is spreading as a forest fire, he went on.
"Safe sex propaganda is a sine qua non, if we are to stop the danger. HIV carriers' treatment is just as indispensable. Certain patients have been taking medicines for five, six or even ten years. They all feel fine, and keep perfectly fit," said Dr. Pokrovsky as he called "not to discriminate against carriers. The public must know they can have healthy children and live normal life in every other respect. Such people can work for all they are worth, and last to the day when we shall know how to do away with the virus."
The expert strongly called to reduce medicine prices and facilitate public access to treatment. True, the World Bank and the global foundation against AIDS, TB and malaria are making target grants for Russian HIV medication and AIDS prevention programmes-but that is not enough. "The allocations must grow several dozen-fold even within the next three years," he stressed.
"Treatment fees must see a drastic cut. That is no less important. There are two ways to do it. We can promote Russian-based production of medicines generically analogous to those invented by the world's foremost companies. We can also get to the negotiation table with those manufacturers, and coax them to reduce medicine prices. There is still another way-to convince the federal government to reduce taxes and customs duties for involved pharmaceutical companies. That, too, will help to drop the prices."
The matter is under consideration at Russia's Ministry of Health and Social Development, Dr. Pokrovsky hopefully added.
