Care and support for people living with HIV/AIDS

AIDS in a new millennium: a grim picture with glimmers of hopecases in that year than in all previous years combined. While about 130 000 Russiansare thought to be already infected with HIV, recent estimates of the number of injectingdrug users in the country range between 1 and 2.5 million. Obviously, many more infectionsmay still occur in this group, apart from the risk of further spread of HIV into otherparts of the population.Figure 5. Number of diagnosed HIV infections, Ukraine, 1993-19981993199419951996199719980 5000 10 000 15 000 20 000 25 000 30 000Source: National AIDS Programme, Ukraine, 1999High-income countries: long survival but more risk behaviourIn high-income nations, HIV infections are concentrated principally among injectingdrug users and gay men. The available data suggest that there are very low HIV infectionrates among heterosexuals in the general population. In Germany in the mid-1990s, fewer than 3 out of 10 000 women of childbearing age were infected. Similarlylow rates have been recorded elsewhere. Very early in the epidemic, once informationand services for prevention had been made available to most of the population, thelevel of unprotected sex fell in many countries and the demand rose for reproductivehealth services, HIV counselling and testing and other preventive services.The situation is very different among injecting drug users. Some communities andcountries have initiated aggressive HIV prevention efforts in this group, containingthe HIV prevalence rate below 5%. In many places, however, the political cost of19