The number of registered HIV-positive patients in Russia has reached almost 1 million, according to data presented at a press conference on Monday by the head of Russia's Federal Center for Fighting AIDS, the Interfax news agency reported.
“The total number of Russians infected with HIV registered in Russia as of Nov. 1 amounted to 986,657 people,” Vadim Pokrovsky said, Interfax reported.
Since 1987, when Russia documented its first reported case of HIV, over 200,000 people infected with the virus have died. Around 20,000 HIV-positive Russians have died in 2015 alone, a 16.6 percent increase over the same period in 2014.
Likewise, infection rates have risen over the course of 2015. In the first 10 months of 2015, over 73,000 new cases were reported, a 12 percent increase over the same period in 2014, Interfax reported.
