Russia owns up to HIV.As Russia faces the prospect of an HIV HIV (Human Immunodeficiency Virus), either of two closely related retroviruses that invade T-helper lymphocytes and are responsible for AIDS. There are two types of HIV: HIV-1 and HIV-2. HIV-1 is responsible for the vast majority of AIDS in the United States. pandemic pandemic /pan·dem·ic/ (pan-dem´ik) 1. a widespread epidemic of a disease. 2. widely epidemic. pan·dem·ic adj. Epidemic over a wide geographic area. n. , the issue of HIV and AIDS has rapidly "gone from near obscurity to the top of the political agenda" there. (1) In April, President Vladimir Putin allocated $109 million to a national project designed to prevent, diagnose and treat HIV and viral hepatitis viral hepatitis n. Any of various forms of hepatitis caused by a virus. viral hepatitis, n an inflammatory condition of the liver, caused by the hepatitis viruses: A, B, C, delta, E, F, G, or H. . In May, Russia hosted eastern Europe's first regional meeting on HIV and AIDS. And at the Group of Eight summit in July, Russia proposed the creation of a regional entity in eastern Europe and Central Asia to promote the development of an HIV vaccine. (2) These unprecedented initiatives presumably pre·sum·a·ble adj. That can be presumed or taken for granted; reasonable as a supposition: presumable causes of the disaster. reflect the government's recognition that with knowledge about HIV transmission low among young people, the disease, long seen mainly among young men and injection-drug users in Russia, is poised to begin spreading quickly through the general population. Official figures show 342,000 cases of HIV and AIDS among Russia's population of 145 million, but the actual number is thought to be closer to one million. (1.) Kmietowicz Z, AIDS in Russia-glasnost arrives at last, BMJ BMJ n abbr (= British Medical Journal) → vom BMA herausgegebene Zeitschrift , 2006, 332(7551): 1176. (2.) Russian News and Information Agency, G8 leaders support regional HIV vaccine center proposal, July 16, 2006, <http://enxian.ru/russia/20060716/51420573.html>, accessed July 19, 2006. |
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