Armenia facing bigger HIV and AIDS problem than official figures suggest
27 Jul 2000
Noyan Tapan
[FBIS Translated Excerpt] Armenia facing bigger HIV and AIDS problem
than official figures suggest
Excerpts from report by Armenian news agency Noyan Tapan
Yerevan, 27th July: The situation with AIDS in Armenia is not as rosy
as official figures suggest: there are 124 people who are HIV-positive or
infected with AIDS. In fact, there are several hundred such people, the
National AIDS prevention centre states.
"We do not have enough funds to diagnose this disease, and if the
situation does not change, we will stop at 124, whereas the real threat
of an epidemic will continue to increase," the director of the AIDS
prevention centre, Samvel Grigoryan, said.
His comments were based on the results of the first analysis of the
situation carried out in Armenia within the framework of a programme for
planning national measures to prevent the spread of AIDS. The programme
is being implemented with the support of UN-AIDS (the UN AIDS programme)
and the UNDP (the UN Development Programme).
In order to assess the situation in Armenia, the AIDS centre has
conducted selective research among high-risk groups - drug addicts,
prostitutes, as well as imprisoned homosexuals, patients with venereal
diseases and those with a clinical instruction to be checked for HIV.
Calculations showed that the number of HIV-positive people in a group
of intravenous drug addicts in Yerevan alone could reach 300-350 people.
The figures were calculated on the basis of the number of drug addicts in
Yerevan - 19,000-24,000 people, of whom 10 per cent are intravenous
drug-users. It was this group of intravenous drug-users which a showed
serum-positive reaction to the presence of HIV infection. These people
were not previously registered with the AIDS centre.
In the other risk group - prostitutes - some 0.5-6 per cent are
HIV-positive (i.e. up to 240 prostitutes are infected). The threat of the
spread of the disease is growing, as only 32 per cent of addicts and
about 70 per cent of prostitutes are using means of protection. Given
these circumstances, we can say that among intravenous drug-users at
least, the number of HIV-positive people will rise in two to three years
to between 40-60 per cent.
Grigoryan noted that reliable diagnosis could only be carried out
using special testing systems, which the AIDS centre had not received
from the state for a long time. The centre is still using the remainder
of the testing systems provided by the Armenicum [Armenian AIDS cure]
enterprise for conducting joint research.
[Passage omitted: Grigoryan comments on AIDS vaccine breakthrough by
British scientists.]
Samvel Grigoryan said he hoped that by the end of this year, a
national plan of anti-AIDS actions would be adopted with the
participation of all the interested structures and at last the state
would start dealing with this problem.