[Let sleeping dogs lie ..., but bail out your friend]

Abstract

In 2013, 80,000 new cases of infection caused by human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) (HIV infection) were registered in Russia; there have been a total of as many as 850,000 notified HIV-infected cases in this country, which suggests that the HIV/AIDS epidemic becomes generalized. Of them, 150,000 people have died, most (22,000) cases in 2013, predominantly due to the late diagnosis of HIV infection and its delayed treatment initiation. The rise of new cases denotes that counteraction against the spread of HIV is inadequately effective; in this connection a further increase in morbidity and mortality rates should be forthcoming. However, the medical community has proved to be poorly trained to fight the epidemic; there is a lower awareness and knowledge about HIV infection among healthcare workers. To overcome the epidemic and its imminent negative implications, it is necessary to improve an epidemiological surveillance system, to introduce proven effective methods for the prevention of the disease, to increase patient access to current treatments, which will require not only higher direct expenditures on preventive measures, the creation of an infrastructure, and the purchase of medicaments and diagnostic agents, but also on the training and retraining of a large number of healthcare workers.