Russia’s Lack of Urgency About Growing HIV Epidemic ‘Must Change,’ Baltimore Sun Editorial States

The fact that "ordinary Russians feel no sense of alarm at all" about their nation's rapidly rising HIV rates "inevitably must change," a Baltimore Sun editorial states. According to the Sun, HIV is "spreading faster in Russia than anywhere else in the world," but Russia spent $5 million on HIV treatments last year while it spent $150 million to raise the sunken Kursk submarine. A change in people's attitudes toward HIV is "the only way that inertia and resistance within the government toward taking HIV seriously can be overcome," the Sun states. According to Vadim Pokrovsky, Russia's "leading expert on HIV," the virus could "become untamable" in a year. "It's a public health catastrophe," the Sun concludes, "and it's just around the corner" (Baltimore Sun, 7/2).