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Armenia struggling with growing HIV cases

27 November 2014 [15:23] - TODAY.AZ

/AzerNews/

By Mushvig Mehdiyev

Armenia is leading country in the region in terms of the number of people infected with HIV.

UNAIDS Goodwill Ambassador Vera Brezhneva and Regional Director in Eastern Europe and Central Asia Vinay P. Saldanha visited Armenia to check the current situation in the post-Soviet country.

"The main reason why we visited Armenia is its leading position in the region for the prevalence of HIV," Brezhneva said.

She noted that the investigations revealed the fatal and rapidly growing virus is spreading in the territory of Eastern Europe and Central Asia.

UNAIDS appointed Ukrainian singer, actress and TV presenter Vera Brezhneva as its Goodwill Ambassador for Eastern Europe and central Asia on November 20, 2014. Armenia was the first destination for Brezhneva's official visit as an ambassador.

"Armenia should work more to prevent the AIDS epidemic," Saldana said.

UNAIDS reported that nearly 1.1 million people in Eastern Europe and Central Asia are infected with HIV virus and the figure goes up by 110,000 each year.

Most of the registered cases are observed among the labor migrants, particularly the Armenians in Russia, according to Samvel Grigoryan, Director of the Armenia's National Center for Aids Prevention.

"Roughly 90 percent of the HIV carriers in Armenia are the migrant workers, who were infected in Russia. The number of the registered AIDS cases in our country has increased this year," Grigoryan said.

Majority of the labor emigrants from Armenia were temporary residents of either the Russian Federation or Ukraine. Data of the Health Ministry confirmed that 65.1 percent of the HIV-infected males were drug addicts, while nearly 98.7 percent of the women in its database got infected through sexual contacts.

The most threatening factor behind the spread of HIV infection in Armenia is emigration. Investigations into the issue exposed the actual history of infections and the labor conditions that are increasing contamination risks for the labor migrant Armenians.

Armenia recorded massive unemployment and emigration that separated families. Forced emigrations because of severe employment problems in Armenia have led to long separations from family life.

Emigrants who depart Armenia during spring months often return in the fall to reunite with their families. Such separations are traumatic, regardless of their reasons. In fact, leaving the homeland help the socially vulnerable Armenians to escape the disastrous economy and sustain their livelihoods at the cost of being a labor migrant and caught by the deadly HIV virus.

The first HIV infection in Armenia was registered in 1988. About 1906 AIDS cases were officially filed from 1988 to October 31, 2014. Assessment of the existing HIV trend in Armenia shows that nearly 3700 people in the post-Soviet country suffer from the deadly virus.

According to UNAIDS, the prevalence rate of AIDS among the Armenians aged between 15 and 49 is 0.2 percent. Nearly 3,600 adults aged 15 and up in the country are living with HIV. The number of the HIV infected women aged 15 and up is 1,100.

URL: http://www.today.az/news/regions/137712.html

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