By Country / Russia
Russia To Set Up HIV/AIDS Commission
April 21, 2006
Gennady Onishchenko (file photo) (ITAR-TASS)
Russia's chief health inspector, Gennady Onishchenko, described the decision as "historic." He said fighting HIV and AIDS would no longer be a purely medical issue, but also a political one.
More than 350,000 Russians are officially registered as having HIV, but domestic and foreign experts believe the true number of infections may be more than 1 million.
(ITAR-TASS, Interfax)