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HIV rates in Russia increasing among under 30s

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MOSCOW, December 1 (RIA Novosti) - The number of people under 30 infected with HIV/AIDS is continuing to grow in Russia, the country's sanitary watchdog said on its website on the 20th anniversary of World AIDS Day.

Despite measures being taken in Russia to try and stop the spread of the disease, the watchdog said as of November 1, there were 448,000 people registered with HIV with around 80% of those aged between 15 and 30.

In the first 10 months of 2008, 33,732 new HIV cases were registered, Rospotrebnadzor said, adding that an average of 65% of all cases in Russia were transmitted through intravenous drug use. And Russia's federal penitentiary service said that prisoners made up almost 11% of all-HIV infections in Russia.

The sanitary watchdog also said that around 61% of all those infected lived in 11 areas, including Moscow, St. Petersburg and their regions, Chelyabinsk and Orenburg in the south Urals, Kemerovo and the Khanty-Mansi Autonomous Area in West Siberia and East Siberia's Irkutsk Region.

The Russian government has stepped up its public awareness campaign in recent years to highlight the dangers of HIV and AIDS related diseases and has launched some 133 programs, including 50 under a national priority project, aimed at providing support for those infected with HIV.

To mark World AIDS Day a number of drug education programs and charity events will be held throughout Russia.

In November 2007, a joint United Nations Program on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) said there were an estimated 1 million people infected with the HIV virus in Russia. The country's chief doctor, Gennady Onishchenko, said, however, that 403,000 HIV cases had been registered in Russia since the first case was reported in 1989.

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