The social isolation of HIV-positive people remains an acute problem. The children of HIV-positive parents, even if they are HIV-negative themselves, are routinely denied access to many public facilities such as swimming pools, sports clubs or health centers, said Yevgeny Voronin, chief doctor with the Republican Hospital for Infectious Diseases in Ust-Izhora, outside St. Petersburg.
The adoption of an HIV-positive child in Russia is rare. During the 19 years which have passed since the first HIV cases were registered in Russia, only five HIV-positive children have been adopted, said Voronin. Of the five adopted HIV-positive children, only one baby was adopted by a Russian, while the other four were adopted by foreigners, he added.
“It is not uncommon for an ambulance to refuse to help HIV-positive people,” he said. “When they arrive on the scene and find out a patient has HIV, not all of them stay and provide medical assistance.”
“The degree of discrimination is horrendous, even the doctors who inform you about the diagnosis or are supposed to give you therapy often act in the most unpleasant way,” said Alexander Volgin, head of the Northwestern branch of the Russian Coordination Council for HIV-Positive people. “When I was diagnosed with HIV in 2000, nobody even told me about the existence of therapy.”
Evidence collected from three different trials in Kenya, Uganda and South Africa showed that male circumcision reduces the risk of heterosexually acquired HIV infection in men by approximately 60 percent.
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