According to Thomson Reuters Foundation, Russia and some former Soviet Union countries risk developing out-of-control HIV epidemics, experts said on Wednesday, after data showed a record number of new cases last year.
Most new cases in the former Soviet Union in 2017 were from heterosexual sex as the disease spreads beyond high-risk groups, according to research by the World Health Organization (WHO) and the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control.
In Russia, official data show there were more than 104,000 new HIV diagnoses in 2017, taking total cases to more than 1.2 million. Experts have said this is probably an understatement.
The number of Russian men who were infected with HIV through having sex with another man more than doubled to 695 between 2008 and 2015, according to official data.
Activists blame widespread discrimination against LGBT+ people for an eight-fold rise in transmission among men having sex with men, to more than 1,000 cases annually.
Discrimination against LGBT+ people means those at risk of HIV/AIDS are afraid to seek out testing and treatment.
Russia was ranked Europe's second least LGBT-friendly nation in 2016 by ILGA-Europe, a network of European LGBT groups.
So sad reality.
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