Critics say expert's figure of 350,000 Russians with HIV an underestimation

Russia is experiencing a burgeoning epidemic as HIV/AIDS continues to spread beyond the ranks of drug users, gay men and prostitutes, into the larger population.

Gennady Onishchenko one of Russia's top HIV/AIDS experts, speaking at a European and Central Asian AIDS conference in Moscow says that over 350,000 people in Russia are now infected with HIV.

He says the dynamics of the spread of HIV started with the first registered case in Russia in 1987, and today more than 351,000 people are infected with HIV in Russia.

Onishchenko said the number of infected Russian per 100,000 now stood at 200 people, echoing comments made in late April by Vadim Pokrovsky, the head of Russia's federal AIDS research center, who said the figure had reached 225.1 as compared with 200.7 in 2004.

Many critics say harassment and discrimination of sufferers and neglect of AIDS victims by authorities, are just a part of a culture of denial that has helped place Russia on the verge of a public health crisis, as HIV/AIDS infections spread.

Russia has 334,000 officially registered HIV/AIDS-infected people but UNAIDS suggests the figure is nearer 900,000 and many others say the real number is likely well over a million, around 1 percent of the country's population.

Many also believe the epidemic can only worsen as Russia's outdated health care system, and worsening health resources, fail to cope.

International health experts have consistently warned Russian officials they have been too slow to react to the problem and have failed to move beyond the traditional core of at-risk people and into the wider population.

They say unless dramatic policy decisions are made and implemented Russia will be overwhelmed.

President Vladimir Putin last month pledged a twenty fold increase in federal funding to fight the disease and the issue tops the agenda for the Group of Eight major industrialized nations summit in St. Petersburg in July.

Meanwhile the head of the Russian Orthodox Church has branded Western-funded non-governmental organizations doing HIV/AIDS work immoral and Moscow city, which has the highest rate of HIV infection in Russia, has accused foreign aid workers of fueling the epidemic.

Authorities in the region are working with the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria to help drop the costs for anti-retroviral therapy drugs that can help manage AIDS' immunity-debilitating effects.

Nevertheless a shortfall in funding means as few as 10 percent of people who need treatment receive it.