New Yorker Examines Russia’s HIV/AIDS Epidemic, Population Decline

The New Yorker in its Oct. 11 issue examines HIV/AIDS in Russia, where the disease is "spreading [more] rapidly than anywhere else in the world." Russia's population is expected to decline by at least one-third by 2050, and none of the population estimates takes into consideration the HIV/AIDS epidemic, which has gone "unrecognized and unreckoned with" in the country, the New Yorker reports. The World Bank has estimated that there will be five million HIV-positive people in Russia by 2020, but more "pessimistic" estimates put the number of HIV-positive people at 14 million, according to the New Yorker (Specter, New Yorker, 10/11). The complete article is available online.

A New Yorker interview with the article's author, Michael Specter, also is available online.