The number of cases of HIV/AIDS in Russia has increased over the past three years, the head of the Federal Centre for Preventing and Combating AIDS, Vadim Pokrovskiy, announced at a press-conference on 15 May, RIA Novosti reported on the same day.

"Unfortunately I must state that there has been a noticeable rise in incidences of AIDS in our country over the past three years," the report said quoting Pokrovskiy. Pokrovskiy recalled that the HIV epidemic reached its peak in 1991 with 80,000 people infected. In 2004, a fall in the number of cases was registered with only 35,000 new cases.

"Since 2004 we have once again noticed a rise, and in 2006 we see about 40,000 new cases of HIV, there is an increase", RIA Novosti reported quoting Pokrovskiy.

He stressed that in the first quarter of this year, eight to ten per cent more cases of HIV were registered against the same period in 2006. He added that by 15 May 2007, 402,000 Russians were found to have been infected with the HIV virus since 1989, and that 100 to 110 new cases of HIV are registered in Russia daily, RIA Novosti reported.

The number of HIV-infected women is also on the rise, Pokrovskiy said, representing 44 per cent of the total number of cases in 2006 compared to just 20 per cent in 2001.

According to Pokrovskiy this trend is likely to increase in the next few years, and there will soon be more women infected with the virus than men.

He also stressed that the population in Russia knows very little about HIV prevention or how the disease is transmitted. According to data from the All-Russia Public Opinion Research Centre (VTsIOM), only 20 per cent of the country's residents can answer precise questions about AIDS and 50 per cent believe the disease can be transmitted through a mosquito bite or by sharing food with an HIV-infected person.

Pokrovskiy stressed the importance "of not only handing out pamphlets and broadcasting programmes about AIDS at 0830 (Moscow time, 0430 gmt) on Friday mornings" (referring to a programme which is shown on one of Russia's TV channels at that time), but also of systematically carrying out preventive measures encompassing various different age groups, the report said.

"Most of us can be instructed only in the work place by involving the company's management", RIA Novosti reported quoting Pokrovskiy.